


Coming Back

by AllisonMikaelson



Category: Legacies (TV 2018), Legacies - Fandom, TVD - Fandom
Genre: Gen, I'll update the tags if it changes though, also, and after hope comes back from malivore, i am exhausted, this is after the finale, vampire!hope
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2020-09-18 20:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 39
Words: 50,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20319028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllisonMikaelson/pseuds/AllisonMikaelson
Summary: Hope is back from Malivore, but everything she knew is different. How does she deal with these changes?





	1. Welcome Back

**Author's Note:**

> I only got two hours of sleep last night, and it's 8:41, so this is probably not near as good as I think it is. Anyway, enjoy!

Hope wakes up in an empty field with Clark sleeping next to her. She doesn't know what to do. The last thing she remembers is jumping into Malivore with him. She shouldn't be back. She should be lost forever, and so should Clark. This doesn't make any sense.

Her next thought is of her friends. Are they okay? Does the fact that she's back mean that Malivore is, too? Do they even remember her? She's the only one who has ever been immune to Malivore, so it would stand to reason that her friends would forget all about her.

She glances at Clark, still sleeping on the grass. She needs to figure out where she is. She needs to find a way to the school. She doesn't particularly feel like bringing him along. It may be considered rude to leave him behind, but he's the reason she had to sacrifice herself anyway. She doesn't feel particularly bad as she stands up and leaves.

Once she's considerably far away from Clark, she tries to use a spell to figure out where she is. When she doesn't get any result, she tries again. Still nothing. She sighs, not quite knowing why her magic isn't working. She's probably just exhausted, she thinks. It'll get better later. For now, she just needs to figure out where she is the old fashioned way. It isn't a big deal. 

It about twenty minutes of walking through the empty grassland before she finds people. The second she does, she's hit with an entirely new sense. She can hear their heartbeats, so strongly it feels as though they're drumming through her body. She can smell the blood, and she thinks that she maybe knows now why her magic is failing. It makes sense for her vampiric nature to be awakened by death, and only heretics can be vampires and have magic.

The idea of not having magic is terrifying to her. Vampire and wolf powers are cool and all, but she’s been a witch all her life. She doesn’t know what it means to not have that power. It’s a part of her. Besides, she knows she’ll have to drink blood now. She’s never had to drink blood before. She can’t imagine it tastes good, but she can feel the craving. The heartbeats keep getting louder and louder, and she has no idea how to satiate the hunger without hurting someone. She has no idea how far from the school she is.

She muddles through despite the hunger and frustration. She finds out from one of the people that she’s about an hour away from Mystic Falls. She doesn’t know exactly how far from the school, but at least it’s some basic information. It helps, even if directions would help more. 

Hope makes it to the school within an hour, and she goes into the school with no problem. She makes her way to the room where the blood is kept, knowing where to get it. She never had to drink blood before, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know her way around the school. After drinking enough blood to make the hunger stop, she throws the bags in the trash. As she opens the door to walk out, MG is standing there. 

“Who are you?” He asks before she has a chance to say anything. “I know people at this school, but I don’t know you. What are you doing in here?”

“Eating,” Hope says, showing her newly acquired vampiric fangs. “Likely same as you,” she adds before walking out. She doesn’t give him a minute to decide what to do or say. She can’t handle hearing an old friend ask who she is again. 

As she walks out of the room and the school, it sets in more and more that no one remembers her. She doesn’t have anyone. She doesn’t have her family or her friends.There is no one for her to lean on anymore. She just started learning how to trust again, and now she can’t really talk to the people she trust. She can’t go back to that school and pretend to be some random vampire or hybrid. She won’t be able to deal with having to re-introduce herself to her best friends. The best thing she can do is stay away. She’ll figure out the rest soon enough.


	2. School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why I keep deciding to write at 3am and thinking it'll go well, but... Here it is.

Hope decides, after a few days of having no idea what to do, that she should go to school. She knows that she can't go back to the Salvatore school, but she has nothing to do now. She needs the structure for her day that school provides. 

Besides, she can't do nothing forever. She can't go back to her friends, but she can't just live with no friends for the rest of her life either. She's already tried that, and she hated it. 

She thinks of going somewhere far away. Somewhere where it's easier not the think about her old life. But she has no way of knowing if Malivore is back in play. She has no way of knowing if her friends are safe, and the last thing she wants is for them to get hurt because she was too far away. Even if they don't remember her.

She finds a way to enroll in Mystic Falls to stay closer. It might be the Salvatore's schools rival, but it's also the closest to it. She needs to be close. 

They don't have some of the classes her old school did, but that's to be expected. She signs up for AP Geography because why not? She doesn't have much other entertainment, and she's good at Geography. She also signs up for AP English. 

She ends up in Algebra, AP Geography, psychology, and AP English. None of them are the best, and they certainly aren't as entertaining as her old classes, but they give her something to pass the time. Her English teacher is nice, telling her that she can always come to her for anything. 

Hope appreciates it, but she knows that she won't. She knows she can't, really. She can't talk to anyone. None of them know about magic and werewolves and vampires and Malivore. No matter how much she wants to talk to someone about the overwhelming hunger or how her powers are all over the place, she can't. She has to hide it. From everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed!


	3. Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope makes a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so tired. Also, I'm not even sure these "chapters" are supposed to be in order. This is just something I'm writing for fun whenever I feel like it. If I think of an event that would go before something I already posted, I'll just post it after. This is what it is. If you want to read it, that's your mistake I guess. (But also please read and comment and stuff because I like validation!)

It's not until Hope's third day at Mystic Falls that she even tries to talk to anyone when she isn't required to. She's still grieving her own death and the loss of everyone she knew, and it's just too much. She knows she should make friends here, wants to, even. It's just hard. 

On the third day of school, she decides to actually talk to someone, though. Of course it's hard to try to make new friends when she's missing her old ones, but she has to try. For all she knows, there could be super nice people at this school. Not all of them are preppy jerks.

It's still hard, talking to someone new. She's been so closed off for so long. It takes a good bit of confidence building, and she actually debates putting it off another few days. 

When the teacher assigns a partner project, though, she knows she'll have to talk to someone today. Luckily for her nerves, she doesn't end up starting the conversation. 

Before she can even get up to find someone, there's a girl walking over to her. "Hey," the girl says, pushing her long, light brown hair with blue tips behind her ear nervously. She has pretty hazel eyes. She's also pretty tall.

(Everyone is tall in Hope's opinion. "Maybe you're just tiny," Lizzie's voice rings in her head. And yeah. She is. It's just another curse she was born with.) 

"Hi," Hope responds after realizing she drifted away for a few seconds. The girl just smiles, though.

"My name is Taylor Johnson. Do you wanna partner up for the project?" She asks, trying to hide her nervousness. Hope can really only tell now because of her advanced heartbeat.  
(She hates being able to hear it. Being forced to hear it. How do other vampires deal with this? Why is she suddenly so thirsty?)

"Uh, yeah," Hope says, moving her book bag from the empty chair in front of her. Taylor sits in the chair, turning to face the new girl. "I'm Hope Marshall," Hope finally says, realizing she hadn't introduced herself yet. She's decided not to use Mikaelson. It would just raise suspicion if someone who knew about her family heard it.

"That's such a pretty name!" Taylor exclaims, face lit up with what looks like genuine admiration. "Taylor is so boring. Hope is like... You're the hope of the future or something. I don't know. It just sounds nice."

"Thanks," Hope says with a smile. She remembers her family talking about how she was the hope of their future. She really wishes she could talk to them. But even the ones who are still alive to talk to aren't an option. They don't remember her. She's all alone. But she doesn't have to be. Even if she can't talk to this girl about everything, they can be friends. That's something. "I like your name, too. I don't think it's boring at all."

"Thanks," Taylor says with a smile. She has the kind of beautiful smile that reaches her pretty hazel eyes. It looks so genuine, and she's reminded of her mother's smile. It was kind of rare, but it was beautiful, just like her new friend's. She misses her mom.

"Should we work on the assignment?" Hope asks, trying to snap herself out of her thoughts. She doesn't need to be sad about this right now. She still has like two hours left of school. She needs to be able to get through the rest of the day, and they really do need to figure out what they're doing for their assignment. Taylor is holding the paper that says what they need to do. They need to create a powerpoint presentation on one of the options on the list of mental disorders. 

"Yeah, definitely," Taylor says, pushing her hair behind her ear again. She plays with her hair a lot, Hope has noticed. "Do you have a preference for what to do?" 

"No," Hope says. "Anything is fine with me. Do you have any preferences?"

"I mean, I have OCD. My brother has ADHD. It doesn't really matter to me, though. I just know more about those two things," Taylor says. "What do you think?"

"Let's just do OCD," Hope says with a shrug. She really doesn't have a preference either way, but they're never going to reach a decision if one of them doesn't say something definite. Taylor nods. Hope's glad they agreed easily. She'd be too tired to argue anyway. The two of them get the laptops and get started on their research. They don't have much time, and they only get two slides done before they have to leave. The teacher tells everyone to work on it at home, and they talk as they walk to their next classes. 

"We can work on it at my house, if you want," Taylor says. "I mean, my brother is kind of annoying. Other than that, though, it'll be fine. My dad doesn't get home until nine, so there shouldn't be too many distractions."

"Sounds good," Hope says. "Where do you live?"

Taylor hands her a piece of paper with her address and phone number on it. Hope puts it in her pocket. "Thanks. When should I come over?"

"Anytime after five is good," Taylor says. "My class is this way. I know yours is over there, so I'll see you later, kay?"  
Hope nods, and they go their separate ways. Hope thinks about Taylor and going to her house later for the rest of the school day. She does her assignments fine, but she's mostly just thinking about her new friend and their project. She's glad to finally have a friend here, even if they aren't very close at all yet. Taylor is nice, and she doesn't seem to only be talking to her for the project. She's excited to see where the friendship goes, even if it's the only thing she really has to be excited about anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	4. The Project

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope gets upset. Then she has to work on a project.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I do this to myself? It's literally 2am. Why am I like this? Anyway, enjoy!

Hope sits by herself during lunch like always. Meeting one new friend is enough for her today. It went well, but she still doesn't think she has the energy to meet a new person right now. She goes to fourth block, and it goes fairly well. AP English isn't the most fun class, but it's not too hard. She's always been good at English, and she likes having the challenge to distract her from everything going on in her head all the time.

They're assigned an essay on the passages they read the last two days. They have to compare them and find common themes. Comparing texts isn't her favorite thing to write about, but she doesn't really mind. She doesn't even mind that they're supposed to do a lot of it at home. She doesn't have anything else to do. 

Once school is over, she walks to the apartment she's been staying in. She hates that she had to compel them to let her stay here, but she needs a place to stay. She doesn't have money. She promises herself that she'll start paying for it whenever she can find a way to get a job and have the other things she needs. It's just not an option right now. She feels guilty about it, but she has to do what she has to do.   
She thinks of how her family wanted her to be better. They wanted her to do better. She wishes she could. She feels like a failure, but she doesn't know what to do about it right now. All she can do now is go to school and do her work. It's better than nothing.

She grabs a bag of blood out of her small refrigerator and drinks it. It tastes so good. She finally understands why her family drank so many people. She certainly doesn't intend to, but she kind of gets it. She assumes bagged blood doesn't taste as good as fresh blood. She still won't hurt anyone. It's a good start to being good, to being better.

She gets to Taylor's house at a little after five. She can tell that there are two people home just from their heartbeats as she knocks on their door. it's opened by a boy who looks kind of familiar. Or, rather, his hair looks familiar. It's brown and purple, and Hope wonders just how lenient his parents are. But she does notice his hair. She thinks he might sit two seats in front of her in one of her classes, though she's not sure which one. His eyes are the same hazel of Taylor's, and she has to assume he's the brother she talks about. Honestly, she thinks the two of them could win in a contest of most attractive twins.   
(Maybe not. Josie and Lizzie are very pretty. That's not even mentioning Landon and Raphael, though she never really liked Raphael like that. Not that she really likes these two like that, but still. It just makes her realize how much she misses Landon and all of her other friends.)

"Who are you, dude?" The guy asks. 

"My name is Hope," she says. "I'm here for your sister."

"Did she really get a new girlfriend? Why does she have so much more luck than me?" He asks, throwing his head back in exasperation. 

"Oh, I'm not-"

"She's not my girlfriend," Taylor says, walking up. "Why are you weird, dude? You're creeping out my new friend. She's here for a project."

"Oh," he says. "Sorry, Hope. She just has so much more luck with people. It's totally unfair. She also has bad taste sometimes. Her last girlfriend was awful. She liked pineapple on pizza," he says, fake gagging. 

"Pineapple on pizza is gross," Taylor says with a shrug. "But I don't see why I would judge a love interest on their choice in pizza toppings."

"See, you and I are very different," he says. "That is one of the most important thing when choosing someone to be with."

"Or maybe you're just way too obsessed with pizza," Taylor says, rolling her eyes. Hope is just standing in the doorway, wondering when she's going to be able to walk in. 

"She's not wrong," he says, looking at Hope. "Pizza is like the best food. Speaking of, since I'm making dinner tonight, we're eating pizza. Do you like any specific toppings, Hope? Fair warning, though: If you say pineapple, you are not allowed in this house."

Hope can't really tell if he's joking or not, but it doesn't really matter. She wasn't going to say pineapple anyway. That's disgusting. "I don't even know if I'll be eating here, but whatever is fine. What's your name, by the way?"

"Tyler," he says. "I'm Taytay's twin brother. She loves me," he says, putting his arm around his sister's shoulder. Taylor rolls her eyes.

"Come on in, Hope. We can go to my room to work on the project." 

Taylor shrugs Tyler's arm off her shoulder. She moves so that Hope can get in better, leading her to the room once she gets inside. Tyler walks over to the kitchen so that he can start making pizza. 

"I want ham on mine!" Taylor says as she rushes off to her room. She doesn't wait for a response.

After asking if it's okay, Taylor puts on a music playlist to listen to while they work. Hope hasn't heard most of the songs on it, but she thinks they're okay. She asks for the names of a few of them because she really likes them, but for the most part, she isn't the biggest fan of Taylor's music. She still thinks it's nice to listen to music while they work. They don't talk much. It's just easier to divide up the powerpoint and do their research, Hope borrowing Taylor's tablet to do it. Taylor has her own computer as well, so the fact that Hope doesn't even have a phone isn't a big problem. 

"I'm done with my slides," Hope says when she finishes with her five. Taylor smiles.

"I only have like one more sentence to put on this slide. Then we'll be completely done. Are you staying for dinner? I think Tyler would like it if you did, and I would like it to, but you don't have to. He can be a lot to deal with, and I get it if you aren't a big pizza fan. I'm really not."

"I'll stay," Hope says. It's better to stay here than to go back to her stupid apartment anyway. She can still eat normal food in addition to blood, so pizza might be nice. Being with them is a good distraction, and they're pretty nice. 

Just as Taylor is about to say something else, there's a knock at her door. Tyler peaks his head in. 

"Hey, dudes. Dinner is ready, if you want to come eat."

"Perfect timing," Taylor says as Tyler walks away. She finishes typing the last few letters of her statement as she stands up. "Ready to eat?" 

"Totally," Hope says, standing up. They make their way to the kitchen. There are two pizzas lying on the table. One is just plain cheese, and the other has a bunch of vegetables on it. Tyler has a plate with two of the vegetable slices. Taylor sits down, and Hope sits on the other side of her. 

"I said ham, Ty," Taylor points out, voice whiny. It's weird to Hope just how different she is with her brother than she is at school. 

"I heard you," he says. "But I don't make meat. You knew that."

"But you asked Hope if she wanted anything else. The only thing you ruled out was pineapples!"

"Hope is a guest," Tyler points out. "Since you are my annoying little sister, I will not contribute to animal slaughter for you."

"I'm literally the same age as you, not your little sister," she says, finally taking one slice of cheese and one slice of vegetable pizza.

"I was born like 5 minutes before you. That means I'm older."

"Fine. Since you're so much older, maybe you should be doing all my chores for me. You should make dinner again tomorrow."

"Sure!" He says with a mischievous smile. "You want cheese pizza again?" 

"Fine, I'll make dinner," Taylor says with an eye roll. "Just no more pizza, I beg of you."

Hope can't help laughing at their sibling banter. She never really had a sibling. Marcel is a lot like a brother to her, but he wasn't around all the time, and he doesn't even remember her now. 

"What?" Taylor asks, looking over at her with confusion.

"It's just... it's funny, seeing siblings fight. I've never really had a brother or sister. It's nice to see what it would have been like."

"Oh," Taylor says with a laugh. 

"We love each other and we hate each other. It's great," Tyler says jokingly. "You didn't get any pizza. I promise I'm good cook."

"It's literally just pizza," Taylor points out. "Not that hard to make."

"Screw you," Tyler says, rolling his eyes. Hope laughs again as she takes a piece of cheese pizza. She takes a bite, and Tyler looks at her with anticipation, waiting to see her reaction. She can tell that he really does like cooking, and he really seems to care what people think of his cooking. 

It is good pizza. It's not extraordinary because it's literally just cheese pizza, but it's better than a lot of the places she's had pizza from before. She tells him that once she swallows the pizza. 

"See!" Tyler exclaims, looking pointedly at his sister.

"Hope, why would you build his confidence? Now he's never going to shut up about it," Taylor says, but Hope can tell that she's not really mad at her. It's pretty fun hanging out with them. Even if most of it is just listening to them bickering, it's a nice atmosphere and she likes being around them. Even though they act mean towards each other, they still seem like good, kind people. 

"Sorry," Hope replies. "It's just good pizza. Anyway, I actually should be heading back home. It's getting late."

It's about eight now. She doesn't really need to get back at any particular time, but she's done eating, and she doesn't want to overstay her welcome. She also doesn't know how much more keeping up with their banter she can do. It's fun, and she appreciates having two new friends, but she's had a long day. She can talk to them again tomorrow. 

They both walk with her to the door. Taylor engulfs her in a hug as Tyler opens the door for her. "I'm glad I picked you as a partner. You seem really cool, Hope. See you tomorrow."

"You do seem cool. We should partner up for up for something in AP English sometime," Tyler says. It's nice to know for sure he's the one she's recognizing. She nods.

"Sounds nice," she agrees. "See you both later." 

"Bye, Hope," they say in unison as she walks away. She uses the walk home, if she can even really call it that, to try to clear her head. There aren't really any people out, and she could just use her new speed, but she doesn't feel like it. She likes looking out at nature as she walks home. It calms her down as she thinks about all the people she still misses, even with her new friends. When she gets back to her new apartment, she lays down on the couch and passes out, hoping tomorrow will be as good as today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading!  
Also, for the record, I actually like pineapple on pizza. They just don't.


	5. Cousins and Aunts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope runs into family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's literally 4:11am. Why. Am. I. Like. This? I'm such an idiot. Anyway, enjoy this mess. I should sleep, but I still want to write so we'll see where that goes.

Their presentation goes well. Taylor is a little anxious about talking in front of the whole class, but she's able to handle it. Hope says the longer parts to help with it. She isn't a big fan of presentations either, but she can tell that Taylor is scared, so she doesn't mind stepping up.

They don't get much free time in class, so they don't talk much. They talk a little between classes before going their separate ways, agreeing to talk tomorrow. Hope goes to lunch. She's noticed that other schools don't have food near as good as the Salvatore school, and that's just one of the many things she misses. But she knows she'll be fine. She doesn't even really need real food anymore. It's just something she likes to eat. Today is nachos which aren't that bad. They'd be kind of hard to ruin after all. 

It only takes her 10 minutes to eat. Once she's done, she heads to the library. She likes reading, but she isn't really looking for a book. Her classes are keeping her pretty occupied, after all. She just doesn't want to sit in the cafeteria all alone. It's a lot more normal to be alone in the library. 

She's sitting at a table, pretending to read a book and waiting for the bell to ring when someone sits across from her. She looks up from the book she isn't reading, trying to see if the person wants to talk. It's a girl who looks around five, and Hope doesn't really know why she's in a high school. The kid just stare at her for a minute, and Hope isn't really sure what to do. She has no idea why this random kid is just staring at her. 

"Do you need something?" She asks, trying to sound nice. She's not sure if it comes through in her voice, though.

"I know you," she says. "Well, not really. There are pictures of you in my house. Who are you? Why are you in the pictures with my family?"

"What's your name?" Hope asks, looking at the little girl. She's never seen her in her life, and she has no idea why there would be pictures of her in the kid's house.

"Kylie Mikaelson," she says. "Now it's your turn to tell me who you are."

"Hang on. Mikaelson?"

"Yes. I'm the daughter of Keelin and Freya Mikaelson. They're my moms. And you- you're in the pictures in my house. They don't know why. They think you were some family friend that they don't remember because they barely knew you. But me and my brother - we don't think so. That doesn't feel right."

Right. Hope remembers Freya talking about her and Keelin's twins. She never got to meet them because Freya and Keelin were busy, and Hope was too distracted with everything going on as well. Kylie and Finn. And apparently, Kylie and Finn have some weird feeling that she's important. 

"I knew your parents and their siblings. But that's it. I was around for a couple months. It makes sense that they don't really remember me. Now, we should get you back home. Why are you in Mystic Falls?"

"We're on vacation. Really, mom just needed to help Dr. Saltzman with his school, but she's calling it vacation to make it more fun. It's not her best plan."

"Okay. Well, I'm going to bring you back to your moms, okay?" 

"Okay," She says, looking disappointed. "I just really thought - you feel like more than a two month family friend."

"I don't know what to tell you," Hope says with a shrug, trying to make it seem like she's not related to her cousin. "Are your parents at the Salvatore school?"

"Yeah," Kylie admits. "Mom's are going to be so mad."

"They'll forgive you," Hope says. "Trust me. Parents will forgive you for anything. Now come on, let's go get you back to them. They're probably worried sick. Is your brother here, too?"

"It's just me," Kylie says. Hope gives her a smile and nods. She holds out her hand to Kylie, and the five year old grabs her hand. Hope walks with her out of the school. They walk all the way to the Salvatore school. They don't even have to walk through the doors. Freya and Keelin are rushing out of the gates. They look scared, so Hope's willing to bet they just realized their daughter was missing. 

"Kylie!" Keelin says, rushing over along with Freya. Hope lets go of Kylie's hand as her mom's engulf her in hugs. 

"Mommy, look, it's the girl from our pictures," Kylie says, looking up at Hope. Hope gives her a small smile.

"Kylie, I told you, she's probably just someone who was passing through. Right?" Freya asks, looking at Hope to confirm for her kid. Hope has to look away. She can't look at her aunts eyes as she asks her about how they know her. She hates this situation. She wishes she wasn't here right now. 

"R-right," she chokes out. "Uh, I gotta go. I hope all of you are happy," she says before using her speed to rush away before they can stop her. When she gets to an empty alley, she lets go of what she's been holding in. Her breathing becomes unsteady as tears fall down her face. She doesn't know what to do; she doesn't know how she's supposed to feel. No one remembers her. The family she loves doesn't know who she is. It's one thing to know that, but it's a whole other thing to see it in her family's eyes. 

It takes her a few minutes to calm down. It's hard to breathe, thinking about what just happened. Eventually, though, she gets her breathing back to normal. She wipes the tears off of her face, trying to get it together. 

She wishes she could just tell them the truth. She wishes she could tell them that she's their niece. That's she's the magical miracle baby, the tribrid freakshow. She doesn't care if it's a good description. She just wants them to know her. She just wishes she could tell them. But telling them wouldn't do much good. They wouldn't believe her if she did. No one would believe her. She has no proof outside of her powers, and someone could probably just explain that away to make themselves happy. She's stuck. She can't tell anyone, and she hates it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Like, leave a comment, whatever. Thanks dudes.


	6. Beating Hearts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I wrote a lot more than this and it got deleted. Don't ask. Anyway, I'll finish it later, but I don't want to rewrite it right now. May post part two of this tomorrow or later tonight. We'll see. Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience.

Hope is at school, anxiously waiting for a break. She's incredibly thirsty. Taylor is sitting right next to her, talking about something Tyler did. Hope is barely listening. She's trying, really, but she needs blood, and everyone's heartbeats are too loud. She can hear that Taylor is talking, but she really doesn't know much of what she's saying. 

She does notice when Taylor stops talking. She couldn't repeat what Taylor was talking about, but she can hear when the words stop because she focusing really hard on trying to listen. It takes her a minute to realize that the teacher is talking now, and she still can't actually figure out what he's saying when she finally realizes it. 

She has to assume there's a new assignment. She's not really sure why else the teacher would be talking. He's not exactly the type to have class discussions about nothing. Maybe she's wrong, but she can't hear to confirm or deny her hypothesis. 

She can suddenly hear Taylor's heartbeat even louder, and she has to assume that they've been assigned to do something that involves a presentation. Taylor gets nervous about quite a few things, but presentations are one of the worst ones for her. And her heart is beating really fast.

While Taylor's accelerated heartbeat is helpful for figuring out what they're doing, it's also incredibly frustrating. Everyone's heartbeats are so loud, and Taylor's beating extra fast isn't helping at all. 

It would be so easy to just sink her teeth into someone. She knows that. She might alert a whole school of the presence of supernatural beings, but at least she wouldn't be so thirsty. But even with this intense hunger, she won't hurt anyone. She has to be better, and she doesn't want to hurt anyone. She's done enough bad in her life, intentional or unintentional. She can't add to it. 

All she has to do is get through the next twenty minutes of class, and she'll be fine. She still has lunch and a full other class after this, but she has a blood bag in her book bag. As soon as class ends, she'll go somewhere private and drink it. 

She notices when Taylor's heartbeat slows down a little. It's nice, but it's not enough. She can still hear literally every individual heartbeat in this classroom. She realizes that Taylor is talking to her, so she tries really hard to listen. All she catches are a few words hear and there, but she thinks Taylor doesn't notice that anything it off. She hopes. 

"Yeah," she says when she notices Taylor is looking at her and has stopped talking. She really hopes Taylor just asked a question or said something else that would make sense with yeah as an answer. Taylor just nods. She starts writing in her notebook, not talking anymore. Hope doesn't really know what she's doing, but she pretends to be writing something as well. 

When class ends, she heads directly to the bathroom. It's not the most appetizing environment to have a meal, but it's the best she can get. She doesn't have too many options unless she just leaves school. She doesn't have any real obligation to leave, but she wouldn't want to explain why she wasn't in fourth block to Tyler. The bathrooms are the only place in h school that are actually private. She can't risk anyone seeing her, not to mention the cameras.

She drains the bag in record time before putting it back in her book bag. She can toss it when she gets home, but she doesn't want to risk making someone suspicious or even curious about her. 

Once she's done in the bathroom, she goes to the cafeteria. She doesn't plan on actually eating the school's lunch. She's never been a fan of spaghetti, and she can assume the school's version of it is even worse. Besides, she doesn't really need to eat human food anymore. She wants to go to the library, but she knows that it's closed today. Apparently there's an event, though she doesn't know what it is. 

She reads a book since she doesn't have anyone to sit with. Theoretically, she could talk to some new people, try to make friends. But she doesn't really want to. The library is open most days, and she already has Tyler and Taylor, though she doesn't think either of them have this lunch. 

Apparently, someone else disagrees with her idea to spend lunch reading alone. A girl with brown hair and green eyes sits across from her. Even though she isn't really in the mood to talk, she tries to be nice. Pushing everyone away never really worked for her. 

(Please read the note at the top)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. I'll most likely do part two of this chapter tomorrow. Kind of upset I lost it, but whatever. Anyway, thanks for reading! Please like or comment. I love getting feedback! Thanks!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter starts immediately following the last one. It's more of a part two than anything because of my computer being stupid. So enjoy! Also, I'm very surprised that I wrote the last chapter at the halfway decent hour of 10pm. Anyways, enjoy!

"Hi," Hope says, managing a smile and trying not to let her frustration show. It's been a long day. 

"Hey," the girl says, not smiling. She looks very serious, and Hope wonders what lunch room conversation between two strangers could be so serious. "You're a vampire," the girl says casually as she eats a bite of her spaghetti. 

Hope freezes. She doesn't know what to do. She doesn't even know this girl, and she has no idea how she knows this. What is the girl planning to do? What is Hope supposed to do? She has no idea, and she doesn't know what to say either.

"Relax," the girl says as she takes a bite of her bread. Hope doesn't understand how she's so casual about this. "I'm a wolf," the girl tells her. "Look, I know that our species don't really get along, but-"

"Shut up," Hope says, realizing just how many people could hear this conversation. She stands up. "Come on," she adds, starting to walk out of the cafeteria. The girl tosses her plate in the trash as she follows Hope. 

"Where are we going?" The random wolf girl asks as they walk out of the school building. Hope is grateful that they don't have very good security as she starts walking to her apartment. She ignores the girl's questions, not wanting to talk until they're in a private place.

The girl stops asking questions after a few minutes, picking up on the fact that Hope isn't going to be answering any of them. Hope thinks it would be great if she could've picked up on that earlier, but she'll take what she can get. They walk the rest of the way to the apartment in silence.

The second the door closes, the girl speaks up again. "Will you talk to me, now?" She asks, eyebrows raised in very clear annoyance.

"Just talk," Hope says. "Explain why you came over to me and then I have a few questions for you."

"Fine. I need help. Supernatural help, specifically. I was adopted when I was two, and I didn't know that I was a werewolf. But this guy broke into our house and tried to kill my parents. So I killed him. And when the full moon came that month, I realized I wasn't human. I didn't know what to do. I still don't. My parents don't even know. I wasn't home when the transition happened. I can't tell them, but I can't keep this from them forever. I don't know know what to do."

"Okay. Three things. Firstly, I'm sorry about all of that. I know that - I mean, I've heard that first transitions can be tough and painful. Second, what's your name? Mine is Hope. And third, how did you know I was a vampire?"

She doesn't like only being known as a vampire, especially since it's the one she's newest to. She's not an idiot, though. As far as most of the supernatural community knows, there are no living hybrids. Definitely no tribrids. This girl may not know much, but Hope can't risk her realizing that there's something strange about her existence, even by supernatural standards. So she doesn't say anything about being anything else. She'll let this girl assume she's just a vampire. She doesn't like it, but she won't risk telling her the truth for no real reason. 

"My name is Avery. And I didn't know for sure. Call it a hypothesis. But when you froze after I asked and looked kind of scared, I knew I was right. You're not awful at hiding things, but I'm good at knowing what's going on with people."

"Whatever," Hope says, rolling her eyes. "What is that you want from me? I don't really know what you want from me."

"I just want help," she says. "I'm sorry if I'm annoying you, but I need help. I know vampires don't like werewolves. You don't have to be a genius to know that. But I don't know where any werewolves are. You're the only supernatural creature I can find."

"Vampires and werewolves do kind of like each other. For your information, though, I think that's stupid. There's not too much I can do to help you, though. There's this school not too far from here. It's for supernatural kids. I can take you to it, if you want. That's all I can really do for you."

"I mean, my parents don't even know. I can't switch schools without them knowing. I already hate keeping this a secret from them."

"I don't know what to tell you," Hope says. She doesn't know what this girl wants her to say or do. She doesn't have a solution for this. She wants to be able to help, but she has no idea how outside of sending her to the Salvatore school. 

"That's fair," Avery says. "I guess there isn't much you could've done anyway. Thank you, though. I appreciate you trying. Maybe I'll try to talk to my parents. I don't know."

"You can come talk to me if things don't go well. And you seriously should consider that school. There are some amazing people there."

"Thank you. I guess I should go home now," Avery says. "I'll see you later, I guess."

With those words, she walks out of the apartment. Once she's gone, Hope takes a deep breath. She does want to help people, really, but she has so many problems of her own right now. She wants to help, but it's exhausting. It's also frustrating. She wants Avery to be able to go to the school, but she misses it herself. Her mind goes to Landon and Josie and Lizzie and Raphael and MG. It's not fair that she can't see her friends. It makes her mad. 

As she gets angrier, she starts to feel the room shake. It surprises her. She hasn't used magic since she came back. She's not even sure that's what's happening now, but she doesn't know what else it could be. She knows it's not the weather being weird, and she would really like to know if she could still use magic. She thought she couldn't, thought that ability was just gone. But if she could use magic again, nothing would be better. Being a witch is one of the most important things to her; it's the piece of her that she's been used to for most of her life. She was a witch before she was really a werewolf or a vampire. To have that back would be amazing.

She says a spell, focusing her energy on a cup that's sitting on the counter. When it doesn't move, she gets annoyed. She tries again, but nothing happens. She sighs, deciding to just go to her room and do the homework she has. She'll just have to make up the work she misses on Monday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or comment. I literally had to retype this three times, and I definitely lost some of the things I originally wrote in the process, but I hope it turned out okay.


	8. Weekend Frustration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't even know at this point. Enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I don't know why I'm still writing. It's almost two and I have plans tomorrow. Whatever! Enjoy!

Hope wakes up the next day on her couch. She kind of wants to sleep for another few hours, but she knows she should do something today. Otherwise, she'll just be bored and feel useless later. She figures job hunting couldn't hurt. She really does want to start actually paying for things. Compulsion is more like stealing, really. She doesn't like it much. 

She decides, after a drinking her morning meal, that looking online might be easier. She's still really exhausted, both emotionally and physically. She does want to do something, but no one ever said that something required leaving the house. 

She fills out two applications online. One is for Walmart and one is for McDonalds. Really, she'd rather not work at either. But she's still only seventeen, and she just hopes somewhere will hire her. She can apply to other places if she doesn't get either of those jobs, but for now, this is all she can really do. 

She compels a worker at a phone store to give her a phone. She does hate compelling people to tell her things, but it would be a lot easier to do things if she had a phone. Work will need to call her. It would be nice to be able to call Taylor and Tyler. She also wouldn't mind it if she had had a phone yesterday so she could give it to that werewolf girl. 

She doesn't do much else. She cleans up a few things and tries to use her magic again with no success. She's starting to think that maybe the mini earthquake was a fluke.

On Sunday, she decides to try to finish her book. Around 1 pm, she's interrupted by a knock at the door of her apartment. She walks to the door, being incredibly worried whose on the other side. No one really knows where she lives except for werewolf girl, and she didn't really think she would be back. She said she could talk to her, but Avery didn't seem like the type of person who actually would.

When she cracks the door open, it is Avery on the other side. She sighs in relief, not even fully knowing what else she thought it could be. She opens the door wider, letting the girl in. "Everything okay?" She asks. She really does care, but she also wishes she could just finish her book in peace. Everything has been way too much lately. 

"Not even a little," the girl says, and Hope can hear her accelerated heartbeat. She's incredibly grateful that she's not hungry. "They don't want me with them anymore. I don't have anywhere to go, Hope."

"The school-" 

"No, you don't get it. I can't just go to this place with all these people I don't know."

"Avery, you barely know me. You can make friends there. They're super nice. Just let me bring you there."

"Are you sure they can help me?" Avery asks. Hope nods without hesitation. She is sure. Even if they can't really help her right now, she knows they can help this girl. She knows they would help anyone. They're good people. Alaric will help her out. Hope has a feeling that Avery would get along fairly well with Lizzie. She'll have friends there. She'll have people who understand her.

"Fine," Avery says after a moment. "Can you show me where it is?"

"Let's go," Hope says with a smile. Avery follows her out. Hope still doesn't have any kind of vehicle, and Avery doesn't have super speed, so they walk all the way to the school. Standing outside of the gates, Hope remembers so many things that she's been pushing out of her mind. The last time she was here her aunts didn't know her. None of her friends remember her. She can't talk to the people she cares so much about without having to either lie or just not be believed. It's all too much. 

"I have to go," Hope says. "Someone will come and talk to you. Everything will be fine. I have to go."

She feels like screaming as she walks away. It doesn't even occur to her that super speed is a thing. After running at normal speed for a few minutes, she finds herself in some woods. She remembers Lizzie's advice. There's no one around. She decides to try the screaming thing a second time. She lets out a loud scream, and the ground shakes. She hopes that the shaking doesn't extend to where people are. 

She knows for sure now that her magic has to be back. She just can't use it unless she's really upset. She assumes she can if she tries really hard. She'll just have to practice and learn how to use them more often. 

She's glad to know that she still has an important part of her, but she doesn't feel any better. She's starting to wonder if wolfing out would help when she hears a voice. 

"What the hell, dude?" Avery says, stepping out from behind a tree. 

"Uh, I-"

"I don't know much about supernatural creatures, but I know that vampires don't use magic," Avery says. "So what the hell, Hope?"

"There are vampires that can use magic," Hope says. "They-we're just rare. A combination of two creatures. Witch and vampire."

Definitely not three creatures. Absolutely not. Because that would be revealing way too much. Avery already knows too much, frankly.

"Then why wouldn't you tell me that?" Avery asks. 

"I barely know you," Hope says defensively. "My... my kind is rare. Not everyone likes us very much. You're a werewolf. I don't trust werewolves. Why did you follow me anyway?"

Hope hates lying so much. Most of what she's said to this girl are lies. This girl doesn't deserve it. Yeah, she shouldn't have followed her, but that's not the point. She just hates having to lie to everyone all the time. 

"I wanted to see what was up with you. I kind of thought we were becoming friends with you saying I could talk to you anytime. Whatever. I'm just going to go back to the stupid school. Have a nice life, freak."

It's not the first time she's been called that, but it is the first time in a while. It's crazy because Hope knows that Avery would think she was even more of a freak if she knew the full truth. Hope doesn't plan on telling her, though. She just watches as Avery walks away. She sighs, ignoring the way the leaves blow around fast despite the lack of wind in the area. She can deal with all of that later. Right now, she just wants to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed!


	9. Monday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took way too long. It got erased. I rewrote. I was tired, had to figure out where I was last time. It there are continuity errors or grammatical errors, let me know. I'm at school so I cant reread right now. Sorry. Hope you like it though.

After going to bed early after the incident with Avery, Hope wakes up early the next day. She looks at her new phone for the time, and she finds that it's thirty minutes before she has to leave. She thinks of going back to sleep, but she doesn't want to risk being exhausted when she wakes up again. She feels fine now, might as well get up. She reads a book while she waits because she really doesn't have many other forms of entertainment. All she has in her apartment is a couch and the things that came with it. She doesn't have a TV. She doesn't even have an actual bed.

She finishes the book before she has to leave. She really needs to get a new book. She can reread the one she has, but it won't be anywhere near as interesting the second time around. That's fine; she has a tendency to spend lunch in the library anyway. 

She gets to the school right before the bell rings. Okay, maybe she should have left a little earlier, but the book was interesting. Besides, she's not actually late.

She gets through first and second block with no problems. During third block, they take notes practically the whole time. They don't really have any talking time, so she doesn't get to talk to Taylor. On the way out of the classroom, though, Taylor finally gets a chance to talk to her.

"You should come over tonight," she says. "My dad won't be home until late, and Tyler misses you, too. He didn't say it, but it's pretty clear. I think he likes you a lot. Not sure in which way. We may be twins, but I don't understand that guy at all. I'd watch out if I were you. He gets a crush on a lot of people," Taylor jokes. 

Hope laughs. "That sounds great," she says. "I'll see you later. When should I come?"

"Well, I have some homework, so maybe not until six, if that's cool."

"Totally cool," Hope says with a smile. "See ya," She says, walking the other way to go to lunch. Today, they are having hamburgers. Hope figures she might as well eat one. She's getting lunch for free either way, and she doesn't have to compel to get it. Might as well eat, even if she doesn't really need to. 

She leaves after eating to go to the library. She picks out two new books. She goes to the desk to check them out, giving the librarian a smile. The librarian smiles back.

"You're here a lot," she says. "Not many people come in here at all by choice, let alone at lunch nearly every day. Not a fan of lunch?"

"No, I'm just kind of new," Hope says, feeling a little strange about the conversation. The librarian doesn't seem like she's judging her, but now she feels like maybe she's been here too much. "I don't really have many friends, and I like to read. Is it a problem?"

"No, of course not," the librarian says. "I love seeing kids come in here. It just doesn't happen all that often if they don't have a project that requires it. Feel free to come in whenever you want. But if you need some friends, I have two kids here that I could introduce you to?"

Hope really doesn't have many friends, and she kind of wishes she did. The librarian seems nice, and she's sure her kids are too, but she isn't sure that she's really okay with making friends through the librarian. It just seems weird, and she doesn't want to force the kids to be friends with her because of their mom wanting them too. 

"No thank you," Hope says, trying to sound as polite as possible while still making it clear she really doesn't want her to introduce them. "I don't mind spending a lot of time here. I like it here. I do have some friends. They just don't have my lunch."

"Oh, alright," the woman says with a smile. "Let me know if you change your mind. What's your name, by the way? For the book."

"Oh, it's Hope Mi-Marshall," she says, quickly correcting herself. "Hope Marshall."

"Here you go, Hope Marshall," she says, holding out the two books. Hope takes them back from her with the same plastered on smile she's had this whole time. She hopes the librarian can't tell that she just wants to stop talking and sit down. 

"Thanks," she says before finally walking away. Lunch is almost over, so she goes over to where her book bag is and slides her book in behind her binders. She leaves the library, heading to her class a little early. Not much happens in fourth block. They have to write another essay, but it's not difficult. 

She waits until 6:05 to vamp speed to the twins' house because even though she has absolutely nothing else to do, she doesn't want it to seem weird. Getting there at exactly the time Taylor said is a little weird. She knocks and it's Taylor who opens the door. 

"Hope!" Taylor says, wrapping her in a hug. Hope thinks it's weird how much this girl hugs. She hugs nearly every time they say hello and goodbye. It's not really a bad thing, but Hope isn't really used to this much physical contact. Taylor's hugs are warm and friendly, though. She feels safe in her arms, even if she is a little stressed about all the secrets and everything. 

"Hey," Hope says as Taylor pulls away. Taylor moves out of the way to let her into the house, and Hope walks in. Tyler is sitting at the kitchen with his head in his hand. He looks incredibly frustrated and stressed out. "You okay?" She asks as she walks over.

"Math sucks," he says, looking over to her. "It's the literal worst. English is great. I'm good at it. Math is freaking impossible, even without dyscalculia, which I annoyingly have."

"I'm sorry," Hope says. "I'm really good at math, though. If you need help, I wouldn't mind."

"Don't bother," Tyler says with a sigh. "You can tell me a million times, and I doubt I'll ever understand it. I think it's time I just give up. I appreciate the effort, though."

"No problem," Hope says. "Let me know if you change your mind. I would advise not giving up, though. I don't have dyscalculia, but I know that things can be hard. Giving up isn't the answer."

"Thanks for the motivational speech, really," Tyler says sarcastically. After a second, he adds, "sorry, I'm being a jerk. You didn't do anything wrong."

"It's fine. You're just frustrated," Hope says, giving him a genuine smile. "Good luck with your homework."

"Thanks," Tyler says with a fake smile. Hope would know. She's the best at them. 

"Come on, Hope," Taylor says. "Let's leave Tyler to sulk."

Tyler sticks his tongue out at her playfully, knowing she's just joking. Taylor returns the favor before running off to her room with Hope. When they get to their room, Taylor looks over at Hope with an excited look in her eyes. "Guess what happened today!"

"What happened today?" Hope asks.

""I met this new girl in Biology. She is incredibly pretty, and I think I'm in love. I'm probably exaggerating, but whatever. Tyler's already talking about how much he dreads me getting a new girlfriend. Anyway, her name is Josie Saltz... I don't know. But I told her about you, and I told her that I would introduce you two!"

"Josie Saltzman?" Hope asks, not sure she wants to hear the answer. Please say no. Please say no. Please say no. 

"Yeah, how did you know?" 

Hope freezes. She was hoping so much that she was wrong. That, somehow, there was some Josie Saltz-something else. She knew it was a long shot, but she still had hope. Now, she doesn't know what to do. 

She also has no idea why Josie is there. She shouldn't be at Mystic Falls High School. She should be at the Salvatore School. Josie being here means that something has to be wrong. That worries Hope. 

"Hope?" Taylor asks, snapping Hope out of her daze. "Should I not have told her I would introduce you? I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. I'd love to meet your new friend," Hope says. She really wouldn't. Even with all the worrying aside, she just doesn't want to have to reintroduce herself to someone that she's known since she was a kid. But she doesn't have a good excuse for Taylor, and she really should find out why Josie is at the school.

"Okay, great!" Taylor says, seeming to get a lot happier. "Now, any preference for a show to watch?" 

"It doesn't matter to me," Hope says, and it's the truth. She's never watched much TV. As a child, she mostly read, painted, played, and practiced her magic. She remembers it being a lot more fun to practice her magic back then. 

Taylor takes her answer as an opportunity to show Hope her favorite show. She explains that it's very underrated but very good. Hope has to agree with her. Maybe she'll watch it on her own when and if she ever gets a TV for her apartment. 

They get to the beginning of episode three before they hear Tyler's voice calling them for dinner. Taylor races down the stairs, clearly very hungry. Hope follows her a little more slowly.

Tyler hands them both a plate with some kind of vegetable pasta, sitting down at his own seat afterwards. "I don't know if you life pasta, but if not, I'll eat it," Tyler says with a smile. "You have to try it, though."

"Pasta's fine," Hope says with a smile. She takes a bite of it, and she smiles. He really is a good cook. She hasn't had too many of his foods, but his pizza and pasta are pretty good. "It's good," she says because she knows he's waiting.

"Could use some meat," Taylor says before Tyler can respond. Tyler just rolls his eyes. 

"You could use some meat!" He retorts back in sibling bickering style. Then he considers what he said. "Actually, no. You don't need meat. Please don't contribute to animal slaughter."

"Whatever," Taylor says, stabbing another piece of the pasta. "I hate you, dude."

"You love me," Tyler argues confidently.

"It's very unfortunate," she says. 

"Moving on," Tyler says, seeming to be done with his conversation. "Hope, what was up with you Friday? Taylor says you were weird in third block, and you ditched fourth."

"I just wasn't feeling well," Hope says, looking down at her food nervously. She hates lying to the only friends she has. They matter to her, and she cares about them. 

"It didn't seem like not feeling well," Taylor points out. "You were, like, zoning out a lot and you looked miserable."

"It's really nothing," Hope says.

"Hope, we're worried about you," Tyler says, looking her in the eyes before looking back down. "We just want to know what's up."

"It's nothing," Hope says again, feeling her anger level rise substantially. She doesn't like lying, and the more they asks these questions, the more she has to. And why can't they just drop it anyway? She can't talk about it.

Before any of them can say anything, the ground starts to shake. Hope realizes that she has to be doing it. She tries to force herself to breathe as the twins freak out. In, out. In, out. Repeat. 

Once she feels okay and the shaking stops, she looks at her panicking friends. 

"The earthquake stopped," Tyler says, sitting down as his own panicked breathing evens out. Taylor is clearly still panicking. She's shaking and hyperventilating, and Hope really wants to do whatever she can to help. But she can't. She needs to get out of here. She just can't be here right now.

"I-I have to go," Hope says, standing up and rushing to the door. As she leaves, she says one last thing. "I'm sorry."


	10. Lazy Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm writing this in class. Why do I do these things to myself?

When Hope wakes up, she feels absolutely miserable. She doesn't know if her friends are mad at her or what. And she can't answer their questions. She's not even sure they even want to be her friends.

When she looks at her phone, she sees that she's already 30 minutes late for school. She figures it's not even worth going. She doesn't really want to anyway. She doesn't want to face Taylor if she's still mad at her. Or Tyler. She just can't deal with it, and she definitely can't deal with more questions.

It's not even just that they might be mad. She could of hurt them. Because she can't control her stupid magic, she could be putting anyone in danger. She wanted it back, but now she doesn't know how to control it and she's just so tired.

All in all, she's just way too stressed to go to school today. And it's not like the school can call her parents and tell them she's skipping. She decides to take a lazy day and just go back to bed. She sleeps through most of the day. 

When she wakes up, there are a ton of notications on her phone. Taylor sent her four messages.  
'Where are you?' 'Why were you acting weird last night?' 'Why won't you just answer me?' It's not rude for me to want to make sure my friend it okay.'

There's a missed call from Tyler, and she decides she might as well listen to the voicemail he left. "Hey Hope. Why aren't you at school today? We need to talk about last night. Call me back."

Hope sighs, letting her phone fall to hsr chest. She doesn't want to answer them right now. 

She realizes, after a moment, that she was supposed to "meet" Josie today. And she really does need to know why she's there, so she really shouldn't have skipped. Oh well. If Josie is still there tomorrow, she'll meet her then. 

She gets up after 10 minutes of just laying there. Her brain won't let her sleep, so she goes ahead and gets up. She drinks one of her blood bags, sitting down on own of the bar stools at her counter. She decides she should try to use her magic. It's not safe for her to be around anyone until she figures this out. She can't just run away every time she gets frustrated.

Focusing on a cup that refused to move is both the most boring and the most frustrating thing Hope thinks she's ever done. She tries for half an hour before throwing her arms in frustration. This causes the glass to break, and Hope sighs in annoyance.

As she takes a break, she thinks more about how her powers only really work when she's mad. Or upset. They're only responding to her emotions. So maybe, she thinks, she should try to use her feelings in a different way. Maybe, instead of trying to push them away, she should try to channel them and manipulate the destruction they cause into something else.

She thinks of Avery calling her a freak, of Tyler and Taylor refusing to stop asking questions. As the room starts to shake, she tries to focus that anger-turned-power into a different use. She thinks of the cup, holding her hand out towards it. She closes her eyes, trying really hard.

The cup does move how she wants it to, but the room doesn't stop shaking until she calms down. She decides that maybe she should be doing this somewhere else. She leaves the apartment, going out to the woods for a quiet place. She brings a few things to try to move. 

It takes her four more atrempts before she's able to get angry and use her powers without the trees shaking. When she does it successfully for the second time, she decides to take a much needed break. 

She looks around again to make sure no one is around. She's far out enough that really doubts it, but it's good to check. Once she's sure no one is around, she takes off her clothes and transforms into a wolf. It's so much simpler that way. She runs through the woods for around an hour, letting her mind relax. She doesn't think about magic. Only about the woods around her and the dirt under her paws. It's so freeing.

When she shifts back, she slips her clothes back on quickly. She decides to practice with her magic a little more before going home. By the end of the day, if she just thinks of bad things, she can perform multiple spells without the ground shaking. 

She goes home feeling successful. She downs another blood bag and goes to sleep, trying not to think of what tomorrow will be like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you like it!


	11. De-stress

Hope wakes up a little earlier than normal, and she really wishes she didn't. It's hard for her to go back to sleep, knowing that she'll just have to get up again in 30 minutes. But having all that extra time gives her time to stress. She still doesn't know what's going on with Josie, and she still doesn't know what's up with her relationship with the twins. She never called or texted them back, and she still doesn't really want to deal with it.

She decides to transform and go for a quick run in the woods. Before yesterday, she had majorly forgotten how calming it was to just be a wolf. She thinks she might have to do a daily run from here on out. She loses track of time, and she ends up only having ten minutes to get to school by the time she transforms back, and she isn't ready at all. After putting her clothes back on, she vamp-speeds to get everything she needs and then to school, trying not to be seen the whole time.

Hope manages to get to the school before the bell rings, but she sadly doesn't have time for breakfast. She's a little grumpy about it. They were serving french toast sticks, and those are about the best thing the school serves for breakfast. She can't really be too mad, though, because the freeing feeling of running through the woods is still helping with her stress levels. 

All of that calmness and joy dissipates when first block starts and she sees Josie two seats in front of her. It's not that she doesn't want to see Josie; it's just that see her means more lying and pretending they don't know each other. But she knows she needs to figure out why she's here. She thinks that maybe she can wait another day, see if the problem disappears. 

The teacher assigns a partner project, and after a few seconds of looking around for someone to partner with, Josie is suddenly standing in front of her. "Hi," Josie says. "My name is Josie. I don't really know anyone in this class, and you don't seem to, either. I was thinking we could partner up? Are you cool with that?"

No. No, she's definitely not. Just looking into Josie's eyes and knowing that she doesn't know her makes her incredibly upset. But she does still need to know why Josie's here, and it would be easier to pretend she was just trying to get to know her during their project. She has to pretend. She has to make sure the Salvatore School is safe.

"Sounds great," she lies. 

She spends the majority of the class trying to subtly interrogate her old friend. Josie just tells her they should focus on the project the whole time, so she doesn’t get very far in finding out why Josie’s here. She can’t exactly straight up ask why Josie isn’t at the school for magical kids that she isn’t supposed to know about. 

The class ends, and Josie rushes out after saying goodbye. The assignment is mostly in class, so they don’t have to meet up or anything. It would be interesting, though. She has no idea what Josie would say if she asked to go to her house. But it would backfire, and Hope doesn’t have the best place to show her. Explaining why a seventeen year old lives in a one bedroom apartment by herself with only a couch and what it came with doesn’t sound fun.

During lunch, she thinks about what she’s going to do about Josie. She’s in the library, so at least it’s a quiet place to think, even if she doesn’t actually want to be thinking about this. What she really wants is to go for a run to de-stress, but she can’t just do that everytime. 

She’s interrupted when she hears someone walk in. It’s Tyler, and he’s walking towards her. She can’t help the panic it instills at first. After everything with Josie, figuring out what’s going on with their friendship isn’t exactly the first thing she would choose to do.

“You didn’t call me back,” he says, sitting in the seat across from her.

“I was sick all day. I didn’t even look at my phone yesterday. And it’s been dead today from Monday, so,” Hope says. She knows it’s a pathetic excuse, and Tyler doesn’t seem to believe her. She can tell from his raised eyebrows, but he doesn’t say anything about it or call her out for lying.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says. “I really wanted to talk to you in person. I’m sorry, Hope. I shouldn’t have helped Taylor interrogate you. You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to. You’re our friend. We should have respected your boundaries. Taylor is slow to admit she’s wrong, but she knows that, too. Give her some time.”

“It’s fine. I just… I have a lot going on with me,” Hope says truthfully. “I don’t want to talk about it yet. I need that to be okay.”

The second part is more of a lie. She would love to talk about everything going on with her. The problem is that no one would believe her, and telling her new friends about the existence of supernatural creatures just isn’t a good idea. 

“It is okay. Like I said, we should have respected your boundaries. Hey, you seem stressed right now. How about we get out of here? Just go to the mall or something. Get you out of your head. I never get to spend time with you alone anyway.”

Hope thinks about it. She has been wanting to get out of her head, and things are apparently okay with Tyler. She still doesn’t know exactly where she stands with Taylor, but at least she still has one of them. 

“We have fourth block,” Hope points out. 

“I know,” Tyler says with a smirk. “No one’s saying we have to go.”

“The school rules say that, actually,” Hope argues with a smile. First real one of the day. 

“You know what I mean, Marshall,” he says with a playful eye roll. “Just come on. It’ll be fun. You know Ms. Johnson puts the assignments online anyway.”

“Fine,” Hope says. Admittedly, her not having a computer will make it really difficult to actually do it online at home, but she does need to get out of her head, and Tyler’s offering something potentially fun.

“Yay!” He cheers, standing up. He holds out a hand to help her up, and Hope lets him as she rolls her eyes at his, admittedly adorable, cheery behavior.

They leave school with no problem, and they make their way to the car he apparently has parked in the school parking lot. He explains that he and Taylor share it, but she prefers to take the bus because she has a few friends that she only gets to see on the bus. Hope just nods along. 

“Where do you want to go?” He finally asks. “I mean, I like the mall, but it was more of a suggestion than anything. We can go wherever you want. This is your de-stress trip.

“Wherever is fine,” Hope decides aloud. She really has no preferences. “The mall is fine, if that’s what you want.”

“Alright, let’s go,” he says, turning on the music as he drives. They don’t talk much on the ride, mostly just jamming out to music. Tyler raps and sings along to the songs he knows, and Hope spends have the ride laughing at his weird dancing. 

“We’re going through Books-A-Million first,” Tyler says. “I’m a book nerd, and you’re in AP English with me, so I think you are, too.”

“I am,” Hope agrees with a laugh. She feels so much lighter now. The thought of the Josie and Taylor situation is still in her mind, but it’s moved to the back. Maybe she can try to forget about it for a while. She is a little upset that she can’t actually buy any of the books. She can’t compel with him here, and she wouldn’t really want to anyway. She would love to have a book collection, though.

After looking through a few books with actual intent to possibly buy, Tyler just finds the most ridiculous looking ones to dramatically act out scenes. After a while, Hope joins in, though she isn’t anywhere near as dramatic as him. They probably spend at least an hour just in the book store.

Tyler buys them both frozen yogurt, and Hope notices how he seems to be ready to get back to walking the whole time. She tries to hurry, even though he never actually says anything about it.

When they’re walking around, looking for another store to go in, Tyler speaks up. “I really am sorry about what happened,” he says, playful behavior disappearing. “If you ever do want to talk, though, I’m here.”

“Same to you,” Hope says honestly. 

“Thank you, m’lady,” he jokes with a fake bow, and Hope finds herself laughing again. She spends a good majority of their time together that day laughing. He puts on wigs and flower crowns and lets her take pictures of him. After a while, he gets her to put on a flower crown, too. He promises not to take a picture, but he does anyway, and she can’t even find it in herself to actually be mad at him for it.

When they leave the mall, he drops her off at her apartment building, asking if she wants him to walk with her to the door. When she says no, he leans over to hug her. She feels her heart speed up a little like it does when Taylor hugs her, but she chooses to ignore it. 

“Bye, Hope,” he says as he pulls away. “See you tomorrow?”

“Definitely,” Hope says. She’s suddenly wondering why she hasn’t spent that much time with Tyler. She’ll have to change that in the future.


	12. Ex Boyfriends And Best Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly in response to seeing that Josie and Landon may be a couple. I, personally, cannot see it at all. I know this doesn't really make much more sense, but I feel like it would make a little more sense.

Hope takes a morning wolf-run, trying to think more about what time it is so she isn't late, before going to school. As she's walking to the school, normal speed, she sees two people standing in a corner, kissing. She tries to ignore them, but the curly blackish hair makes her stop. 

She tries not to make it clear that she's watching them, but she stays close so she can see who it is. She feels like a creep, but something is keeping her from moving. Her feet feel stuck in place, so she just waits for them to pull away from each other.

When they do pull apart, Hope is surprised to see the face of Lizzie Saltzman. 

"Kisses are great and all, but I am worried about my sister, Landon," she says with an eye roll. 

"Okay. That's perfectly fine. But you don't need to check up on her. She would call Dr. Saltzman if she was in trouble."

"Okay, but-"

Hope vamp-speeds away before she can hear the rest of what Lizzie is trying to say. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that she is panicking.

The moment she gets somewhere private, she breaks down. Tears fall down her face, and her breathing is more staggered than it really should be. After a few moments, once her breathing is steady and the tears have stopped falling, she heads back to the school. There's no point in ruining her school life. She already destroyed her old life. Besides, it'll provide a distraction.

The idea that it'll provide a distraction turns out to be very, very wrong. All she can think about is the image of her boyfriend kissing the girl that she had just finally started to be friends with. The friend she had confided in, who had helped her to get her boyfriend back. Her boyfriend who is now dating that friend. They never even actually broke up. She feels like she didn't get the closure she needs, and it hurts so much. It hurts that he moved on so quickly; that he fell for Lizzie. She guesses it's not really moving on if he doesn't even remember her, but that doesn't exactly help. 

She can't focus at all during first or second block. She gets a worksheet, but she can't even remember which class it's from, and she barely even looks at it. They take notes in one of her classes, but she doesn't write anything down. Her brain doesn't seem to want to focus on anything that isn't Landon and Lizzie related. Frankly, it's exhausting and annoying. She doesn't even like some of her classes, but she would still much rather focus on them than this. 

She's still thinking about it during third block, but she manages to concentrate on the world around her a little better. She notices that Taylor sits a few seats away from her normal seat, a few seats away from Hope. She doesn't fight it. She doesn't ask if they're okay, or what could make them okay. She does want to have Taylor's friendship, but she just doesn't have the energy to talk to her and apologize and work things out right now. Frankly, all she really wants to do is go home and go to sleep. She wishes she could pause time and sleep for a month. Maybe one day she'll find a spell for it. Of course, even if that did exist, it would still have to wait until she could do bigger spells again. 

In fourth block, Tyler sits next to her. "Hey," he says as he sits down. "You look upset. Wanna talk about it?"

Yes. Yes, she really does. But she can't. Not really. Maybe, though, she can try to without all the details. She really would like to talk to someone.

"My ex-boyfriend is dating an old friend of mine that I was very close to. One that had actually tried to help get us back together, in fact. They don't even rem-I mean, they act like they don't even remember me."

"They sound like jerks," Tyler says, popping a cheeto in his mouth. Hope didn't even realize he had food out. Why does it seem like he's always eating? "I'm sorry they're being awful to you. Maybe you should tell them how you feel. I don't know if it'll work, but it sounds worth a shot, right?"

"I guess," Hope says, but she knows she won't talk about it with them. That's the problem. Tyler is trying to help, and he really is giving great advice with the information she's giving him, but she can't give him all the necessary information. That's what makes all of this so hard. Even if she talks to someone about something, she has to leave out so many details that they can't possibly be helpful. It just leaves her feeling hopeless, knowing she'll never really be able to talk to anyone about everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment or a like!


	13. Unwelcome Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! (sorry it's short)

Hope is about to go to school when there's a knock at the door. Considering Tyler and Avery are the only ones who know where she lives, she assumes it's probably Tyler. She doesn't know why he would be here, but she's pretty sure it wouldn't be Avery after how she left.

When she opens the door, it's neither of the people she would've expected. Instead, it's the guy she ditched in the woods a while back. Ryan Clarke. "Hi, Hope Mikaelson," He says with a smirk. "Leaving someone passed out all alone isn't very nice. Anything could've happened to me."

"You come back when you die," Hope says with an eye roll. "Not that I care if you die permanently. How did you find me? Why are you here? You should know from our last encounter that I don't like you very much."

"I'm just incredibly bad at taking a hint," he says sarcastically before getting a more serious look. "The feelings mutual, Mikaelson. But I have no where to go right now, and I don't have vampiric compulsion to force people to let me stay somewhere. So I found you. Let me stay here for a few months, or I will make your life a living Hell."

"Perfectly fine at doing that myself, but thanks," Hope says sarcastically. "You can't stay here."

"You were in love with my brother, witch girl. Sorry, tribrid girl. You're such a freak. Anyway-"

"Takes one to know one," Hope says, cutting him off.

"Anyway," He repeats. "My brother was in love with you. You were in love with him. We could have been in laws."

"Your brother tried to kill you. He hated you, and so do I. Leave, Clarke."

"I refuse," he says. "And you can't just kill me to get rid of me."

"Maybe not," Hope says. "But it'll be pretty hard for you to ruin my life, or whatever, when you're decapitated.

"Maybe so," Clarke says. "But you won't do that. And if you don't let me stay here, I will go torment your friends. The new, weak ones. They're defenseless."

"You really shouldn't mess with a Mikaelson," Hope says, vamp speeding closer and snapping his neck. He falls to the ground and Hope sighs. She knows that he'll wake up soon, but it buys her some time. She can figure out what to do with him soon enough.

(Please read notes at the bottom)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was really short and it's been like a week since I've posted. I'm sorry about that, and I'll try to get back on it. I just need a little time. My depression is spiking up again, making it difficult to do much of anything. Not to mention the anxiety. Anyway, I will get back to this very soon. Give me a few days and I should have a longer chapter to post. Sorry for the long wait. Thanks for reading!


	14. Taylor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually wrote this before midnight! I don't know if it's good, but at least it's something! I'm proud of myself.

"Taylor, you need to apologize to her."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Taylor exclaims. "She was the one who wouldn't talk to us. She was the one who left when I was freaking out. She should have been there for me."

"We were interrogating her, Taylor."

"We were asking her questions! We're her friends, and she's clearly hiding a lot of secrets."

"She isn't required to tell us her entire life story just because we're friends," Tyler argues. "She's allowed to have secrets. She's allowed to not tell us everything. We should have stopped asking her questions when she clearly didn't want to answer."

"Okay, well-" Taylor stops after a second, closing her eyes. "You make an annoyingly good point."

"I know. I'm actually pretty smart," Tyler says with a smirk. Taylor rolls her eyes.

"What you are is annoying," Taylor says before rushing up the stairs. She needs to figure out how to apologize to Hope for interrogating her. 

~~~

Hope sits in her living room, dreading getting ready for school. She has Clarke tied up in the empty room she has. She never stays in a room, anyway. The living room is perfectly fine for her, and it's the only place with much furniture. 

She really doesn't want to leave him here alone, even knowing that her spells keep him from making any actual noise. It took a million tries to get the should-be-simple spell to work, but at least he can't annoy her with his screams. Not to mention, she doesn't want him drawing attention to her. 

She wishes she could just kill him. It would be so much simpler, but sadly, he can only die temporarily. 

She finally gets up and gets ready, choosing to ignore the fact that her ex boyfriend's evil brother is locked in what should be her bedroom. She doesn't really want to go to school, anyway. It'll be another day of Taylor avoiding her and Tyler trying to talk to her about her problems. It's not that she minds talking to Tyler, and she likes that he cares enough to check on her, but she can't tell him everything. It just sucks.

She's not expecting for Taylor talk to her at all, but she walks over to her before class begins. She looks so confident, but Hope can hear that her heartbeat is a little sped up. "Hi," Hope says when Taylor looks like she's contemplating what to say. "You haven't talked to me in a while."

"I know," Taylor says, looking down, pulling at the sleeves of her jacket. Hope has noticed she does that a lot, normally when her heartbeat is sped up. "I'm not good at talking about when I'm wrong. I wrote you a note, though. I don't like writing, but it is kind of easier to write things than to say them. I also made you this," Taylor explains, handing Hope the note and a bracelet. 

Hope opens the note, wanting to see what is says before she forgives Taylor. She wants to forgive Taylor. She wants them to be friends again. But she needs to make sure that Taylor knows she can't interrogate her. It's not a very long note, but it's definitely enough. It says that she's sorry and she won't ever interrogate her again. It makes Hope smile. She stands up, hugging her friend. It's the first hug between them that Hope initiated. She loves the feeling of hugging Taylor. She knew that before, but she really appreciates it after they've been fighting. 

They break apart when the bell rings for class to start, and Taylor takes her normal seat near Hope. They don't talk much throughout the class, but Hope appreciates just having Taylor near her, knowing that their relationship is okay. She can figure out what to do with Clarke later. Right now, she's just going to sit here and be happy about having her friend back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! This is short. Honestly, it's too short. But it makes me feel productive and I should have another chapter up soon. This just kind of addresses the problems and sets up the next chapter. Sorry I've been so bad at posting lately.

Hope has been putting off talking to Josie. She knows that she needs to, but she really doesn't want to. It's just so painful. For their partner project in first block, Hope's kind of pushed her away, telling Josie they could work on it individually. It's a stupid idea to begin with. The main reason, if not the only reason, she agreed to team up with Josie in the first place was to figure out why she's at the school.

She's hanging out at Taylor's house when she's forced to face the situation. "So, now that we're friends again, I was thinking that maybe you could finally meet Josie. Remember? The hopefully future girlfriend?" 

Hope is glad that her and Taylor are friends again. Really, she is. She's not so glad that Taylor has to bring up Josie. Hope has been perfectly content ignoring the issue, thank you very much. Of course she wants to spend time with Josie, but not when she doesn't even remember her. It's painful and miserable. She's lost so many people, and this is just another person she's lost, even if Josie isn't dead. Honestly, she doesn't even want to talk about Josie. It just makes her sad.

"I remember," Hope says truthfully. How could she forget? "I already met her, though. She's in my first block. She came up to me to partner for a project, and I said yes."

"Oh, yay! I would've liked to introduce you, but that's still cool. Did you like her? Please tell me you liked her. My best friend can't hate my future girlfriend."

"She seems cool," Hope says. "We didn't talk much. We've mostly been working on it separately. It's easier that way."

"Oh," Taylor says, seeming to deflate a little. "Well, the two of us are going to the craft store tomorrow so I can get some more supplies. Wanna come with?"

She really doesn't. She still hasn't decided what to do with Clarke, she didn't get the jobs she applied for, and she really, really doesn't want to pretend to not know Josie well again. But she will. She will because she knows that she needs to. She does need to figure out why Josie is at the school, no matter how much she wants to keep putting it off.

She'll apply to a few more jobs. She still needs money. She'll figure out what to do with Clarke eventually. It's not hurting her much to have him tied up in the room. And he's miserable, which is definitely a bonus. She can figure everything out eventually, but she thinks it's time she stops putting this off. She needs to make sure that her friends are safe.


	16. Craft Store

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josie, Taylor, and Hope go to the craft store to spend some time together. Josie and Hope talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! I got a fairly long chapter done, and I'm kind of proud of myself. I mean, it is almost three am, but it's something!

Hope does not want to wake up in the morning, but she forces herself to do so anyway. She doesn't want to deal with school, and she doesn't want to deal with hanging out with Josie and Taylor after. Even thinking about all of it is too much. But ditching either won't help much of anything. 

She'll probably just get in another fight with Taylor if she doesn't go to the craft store with them, and she'll just have to explain why she was gone to Taylor if she misses school. She really doesn't want to do either, so she decides to just try her best to make it through the day. 

She's a little, or maybe a lot, annoyed that she can't go wolf out before school. She woke up a little too late, though, and missing first block would possibly cause Josie to ask questions later. She just decides to take a run through the woods before going to the craft store later.

The school day is mostly normal. Hope sincerely doubts that anyone would call it good or fun. She would call it manageable, but that's much better than awful and too hard to deal with. She can survive, and that's all that really matters today. 

Hope goes out to the woods once she gets home, hoping to wolf out like she had planned. She sees two people walking through the woods, though. She wants to scream as she realizes that she can't turn. She was only planning on running for like fifteen minutes, but it still would've helped.

She notices the leaves blowing more rapidly as she gets annoyed. She closes her eyes, takes a breath. Everything goes back to normal. She's been getting better with her magic. She can do more by choice without as much effort, which is definitely helpful. She's still having a little bit of trouble controlling her magic when her emotions are a mess, but she's working on it. She's getting better.

Hope leaves to meet up at Taylor's house at the last possible minute, wanting to delay it as long as possible. She cares a lot about both of the people she's going to hang out with, but that doesn't make it any easier. She's already stressed out, and now she's going to have to lie her way through this. 

"Sorry I'm late," She says, walking in and seeing the two of them already there. 

"You're barely late," Taylor says. "And with your tendency to get here nearly right on time, I think I can forgive a few minutes."

"Thank you," Hope says, pretending to be flattered in a joking way. Taylor laughs. Josie awkwardly looks between them. 

"Hi," she says with a quick wave. "I forgot your name. Sorry."

"It's Hope," Hope says. She carefull avoids Josie's eyes, not wanting to see the lack of any real recognition. She tries not to make her misery too obvious, though. 

"Okay. Let's go. I hate waiting for things," Taylor says with a smile. Hope and Josie both follow Taylor as she walks out. 

Taylor drives them to the craft store, telling them that she made sure Tyler wouldn't need the car today. They make it there in twenty minutes. Hope opts for sitting in the back while Josie sits in the passenger seat. It's easier for her, anyway. 

Taylor loudly plays her music on the ride, so Hope really doesn't have to talk to either of them. It helps her calm down a little, still kind of upset about not being able to wolf out. When they get there, they walk in to a store Hope has never seen before. It's not very big, but Hope wasn't really expecting a craft store to be very big. 

They go in, and Taylor immediately gets excited. She runs over to a section of bracelet making stuff. Hope smiles, looking down at the bracelet Taylor gave her. She follows Taylor over to the bracelet stuff, along with Josie. 

After Taylor admiringly stares at some threads and beads, she looks around some more. Her eyes widen as she looks around, as if taking everything in for the first time. "Hope, Josie, we need to over there right now!" Taylor exclaims. She grabs one of Hope's hand and one of Josie's, dragging them over. Josie laughs at her excitement, and Hope finds herself laughing as well. Taylor is kind of adorable, after all. 

After dragging them through crochet items, sewing tools, and a million other things, Taylor finally slows down. She has a ton of things in her arms. She insisted earlier that she didn't need a buggy, but Hope still doesn't believe it. Taylor's a second away from dropping everything, and Hope and Josie are also holding things for her.

They drop everything off at the counter. After the cashier rings everything up, Taylor pays for all of her new supplies. Hope can't imagine spending that much on craft supplies, but to be fair, she doesn't have any money. She would like to draw again, honestly, but she doesn't want to have to compel someone to give her something if it isn't necessary. 

The car ride back to Taylor's house is filled with more loud music, Taylor singing along to every word. When they get to Taylor's house, Hope and Josie help Taylor bring everything inside and to her room. After, they talk for a little while. Hope makes up lies when she has to, like when asked about her parents. 

She can tell when Josie lies, too, like when Taylor asks why Josie is at their school now. Josie's good at lying, saying that her family moved, but Hope knows that isn't it. Hope wonders if lying bothers Josie as much as it bothers her. 

Despite the annoyance of having to lie, she does have a pretty good time. It's even better considering she was thinking she would be miserable. Instead, she's happy most of the time, excluding when she has to lie or is reminded of the fact that Josie doesn't really know who she is.

When it starts to get late, Josie says that she has to get home because she has an early curfew. "Can I walk you out?" Hope asks. "I'd just like to talk to you some more, since I haven't really had much one on one time with you. If you're friends with my best friend, we should probably talk more."

She really doesn't want to talk to Josie more. A large part of the reason tonight was actually okay is because most of it didn't actually involve much talking. But she still needs to figure out why Josie is here. 

"Oh, okay," Josie says, smiling at Hope. She stands up, and after they both say goodbye to Taylor, Hope follows Josie out of the door. She ignores Taylor mouthing 'say good things about me' to her. It's not exactly her top priority. 

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Josie asks as they walk out the front door.

"Why are you here? Like, at the school? At my friend's house?"

"I told you," Josie says, seeming confused. "My family moved, and I'm just trying to make new friends."

"Josie, please stop lying. I know who you are. I know what you are. I know that you should be at the Salvatore school. Why aren't you? Is everything okay there?"

It's risky to ask these questions. She knows that. Josie will inevitably have questions of her own that Hope won't know how to answer. She'll have to lie some more, but she still needs to know. 

"How do you know that?"

"I'm a witch. Move on. I'm just worried. There are people there that I... care about. I just want to know why you're here so I know if everything is safe."

"We used our magic globe that alerts us of supernaturals. There was a very powerful one at your school. I offered to join to find them. I guess that's you?" 

"Guess so," Hope says, crossing her arms. She's very uncomfortable with this situation. She made that magical globe, and she hates that Josie doesn't know that. She hates that there's so much Josie doesn't know. 

"Then this is your formal invitation," Josie says with that welcoming smile that Hope loved. "We would like you to join the Salvatore school. Apparently, you've already heard of it. That's unexpected, but it doesn't change much."

"I appreciate the offer, but I have to decline," Hope says. She still doesn't want to have to look at everyone's faces, knowing that they have no idea who he is. Seeing Josie is stressful enough. She can't handle seeing Landon or Lizzie, or especially seeing them together. Not to mention everyone else she can't bear to see and lie to again.

"But this is a great school, and-" Josie starts, surprised Hope isn't jumping at the offer.

"I know what your school does, okay? I think it's great. I really do. But I have a handle on my powers. I know what I'm doing, and I'm not going to hurt anyone. I like what I have here. I don't want to go back."

"Okay," Josie says, looking away. "I'll tell my dad I failed the mission. Bye."

"Wait," Hope says as Josie starts to walk away. Josie turns around and looks back at Hope. "I know you have to go back to your school, and that's fine. But Taylor really likes hanging out with you. From the way you were acting today, I think you like spending time with her, too. Just... don't just ditch her without saying anything, okay?"

"I won't," Josie says, giving Hope a small smile. "I'm sorry that I have to leave you in the middle of our project."

"I think I can forgive you," Hope says, smiling. "Josie, I really hope you're standing up for things you want, now. Not so in Lizzie's shadow anymore. You're so amazing."

"How do you know ab-"

"It doesn't matter," Hope says. "Just trust me, you're amazing."

She knows that she's making it too clear that she knows a lot. She knows she shouldn't be saying this. But she needs Josie to take care of herself, and this is all she can do right now. She just hopes Josie will actually stand up for herself more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love it if you left a like or a comment!


	17. Research

When Josie goes back to the Salvatore school, the first thing she does is report to her father. He says that it's okay, of course, but she can't help feeling a little guilty for failing the job he gave her. He tells her not to worry about it, that it's just one person and they can't force her to come to the school. He tells her to just forget about it.

In Josie's defense, she really does try to just forget about it, to just put it out of her mind and focus on other things. Sadly, her attempts don't work very well, causing the things she has to do throughout the day kind of difficult. She just can't help thinking about it. How did the girl know anything about her? Did she know the whole time? Why wouldn't she want to come to their school? Why would she choose to go to a school of humans who can't possibly understand her?

Why did Josie get a weird feeling around her, like she was familiar despite the fact that Josie knows they haven’t met before. Why can’t she stop feeling like she needs to find out more about this random girl? Why does she feel like she can’t remember something that she needs to remember?

She’s in her room, trying to force herself to focus on homework, when Lizzie walks in. “Josie!” She says, seeming angry. 

“What’s up?” Josie asks, sitting up so she’s facing Lizzie. 

“Landon is a complete idiot!” She says angrily. Josie can tell she’s not super angry, though. The room isn’t shaking. 

“What did he do this time?” Josie asks, trying to seem interested even though she really doesn’t care. She loves her sister, and they’re in a good place right now, but that doesn’t mean she wants her to rant about her relationship troubles all the time. If it was serious, she would gladly listen, but it’s always just something petty. She’s always over it within a few days, and Josie can’t help feeling that Lizzie should just skip the ranting part and talk to Landon in the first place. 

While Lizzie is in the middle of telling a story about how Landon didn’t compliment her on her amazing outfit or something, Josie comes up with an idea. 

“Are you even listening, Jo?” Lizzie asks as Josie stands up and grabs something.

“Just talk to Landon. It’ll be fine,” she says as she starts to walk out. She does want to help her sister, or at least pretend to listen when her sister is going on about stupid things, but she has more pressing things to deal with.

Penelope gave her the book with everything everyone had written down at the school, telling her to read about the merge. She still feels like it’s kind of wrong to read people’s journals, and she definitely doesn’t take the idea lightly. She hated finding out that Penelope was reading hers, knowing things that were only meant for her own eyes. 

But she knows something is up with Hope. She feels like she should know who she is, but she doesn’t. Maybe someone at the school has written about her at some point. Josie really isn’t sure, but it’s worth a shot.

She finds the book, using a spell to try to find entries that contain ‘Hope.’ The problem with the name Hope is that it’s also a word, and it turns out that a lot of people write about the concept of Hope. There are too many possible pages. She reads a few, really only finding out that Landon really hopes Lizzie isn’t going to dump him over not complimenting her and a few other unimportant things like that. She can’t possibly read through all the pages with the small hope that she’ll find something about the witch girl. She doesn’t even know for sure if there is anything. 

Josie is about to give up when she finally sees something that may be helpful. Josie can tell just from looking at it that it’s Lizzie’s handwriting.

_ “I am so tired of Hope Mikaelson. All she ever does is annoy me and steal my dad. Seriously. He keeps telling her all these secrets and refusing to tell his own daughters. Not to mention, she’s all sisters in solidarity with Josie now. They did a spell together, and now they’re hanging out together and going against me. Josie better make it up to me soon.’ _

If she wasn’t so focused on how confused she is right now, Josie would probably be rolling her eyes at Lizzie’s exaggeration. Josie doesn’t even remember it, but she still knows she definitely didn’t do anything too bad. Instead of thinking about that too much, though, Josie’s just confused. Lizzie said she was spending time with this Hope girl. That Hope was “stealing” their dad, whatever that means. So why can’t Josie remember her?

She rereads, looking for any more clues in the diary entry. She pauses when she realizes a word she mostly skipped over. Mikaelson. Hope Mikaelson. The problem is that this doesn’t really help. It just makes her more confused. Josie knows the names of all the Mikaelsons. The only ones still alive are Freya, Rebekah, and Kol. And Davina and Keelin, by marriage. There is no Hope Mikaelson.

Even though she doesn't even know where to begin, Josie knows she'll have to figure out more about this. None of it makes any sense, and she won't be able to focus until she finds out more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love if you left a like or comment!! Thanks for reading!!!


	18. Josie and Freya

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Hope you enjoy! I'm typing this at 1:23. My OCD says that adds up to six so it's bad, but it's also cool because it's in numerical order. Whatever. Enjoy!

Josie's next week is dedicated to trying to find any information she can on this Hope Mikaelson girl. She asks Josie if the name is familiar, but Lizzie looks at her like she's crazy. She googles the girl's name, but nothing comes up. She even finds a way to sneak into the school records to try to find more information. She reads more journal entries. None of it is helpful. 

She's thinking of giving up when Finn Mikaelson Jr., Freya's son, runs up to her, hugging her legs while she's walking. She has to try really hard not to trip with the young boy attaching himself to her legs. "Josie!" He screams excitedly, looking up at her. 

"Hey, Finn," she says, laughing. "Can you let go of my legs so I can walk?" 

"Promise not to leave me?" The boy asks. Josie can feel him looking up at her with his big brown eyes without even actually looking at him.

"I promise," Josie says. Finn lets go of her legs, moving so that he's standing in front of her in the hallway. It's a good thing not many people are in the halls right now. "What are you doing here?" Josie asks, smiling at him.

"Moms needed to talk to your dad," Finn says with a shrug. Ever since the first time Finn and Kylie came to the school with Freya and Keelin, Finn has run to Josie almost immediately every time. Alaric asked Josie and Lizzie to watch Finn and Kylie once, and Finn just really liked her. Kylie was more closed off, but she did take a bit of a liking to Lizzie.

"Do they know where you are right now?" Josie asks, eyebrows raised. It wouldn't be the first time he ran off to meet her without telling his parents. Finn looks away from her, eyes shifting to the ground. 

"Maybe not," he admits, still not looking up. "You're my favorite person here, Jo. I just wanted to come see you. We're supposed to be leaving pretty quickly, and I didn't want to waste any time."

"Finn, I love hanging out with you. And I'm glad you come to me, but you do need to tell your parents first. We don't need a repeat of when they lost Kylie last time. Let's go tell them, okay?"

"Fine," Finn says with a sigh. He grabs Josie's hand as they walk down the hall to her father's office. If you try to make Kylie hold anyone's hand besides Finn's, for safety or anything else, she refuses. Finn feels safest holding hands with people, though. He's a little shy around new people, and holding Josie's hand helps him feel like any random people in the hall can't possibly hurt him. He has a powerful siphon witch on his side. Technically, he's a witch, as well as a werewolf. But he doesn't really know how to do anything with either of those yet, so he'll just depend on Josie for now.

When they get to the office, Josie knocks on the door. Alaric tells her to come in, and she walks in the see Freya, Keelin, Alaric, and Kylie. "Hey, dad," she says. "Finn said he didn't tell you guys he left, so I figured I should make sure you knew."

"We kind of just assume that's where he is at this point," Keelin laughs. 

"But thank you for telling us," Freya adds with a smile. 

"Totally," Josie says with a smile. As she's about to asks if Finn can keep hanging out with her, she realizes who she's talking to. Freya is a Mikaelson. If Hope really is a Mikaelson, if there's any way that's true, Freya should know. "Uh, Freya, can we talk? Privately?"

"I have to talk to your father a little longer, but after that, sure. Could you take Finn and Kylie with you for now?" Freya asks. Josie nods with a smile. 

"Come on, kids," Josie says. Finn is still holding her hand, ready to leave. He's also basically bouncing up and down a little, but that's just normal for him. Kylie is a little reluctant, but she follows at her mother's insistence. Josie takes them to her and Lizzie's room. "What do you guys want to do?" she asks as she sits down on her bed.

"Where's Lizzie?" Kylie asks.

"She is on a date right now," Josie says. "She should be back in an hour, if you're still here."

"Okay, well, I don't want to hang out with you. You're boring!" She says.

"No, she isn't!" Finn argues. Kylie rolls her eyes. Josie just gives the girl her phone to play on. Kylie has never been a fan of hers, for whatever reason, and Josie isn't particularly in the mood to bother trying to change her mind. "What are we gonna do?" Finn asks excitedly after Kylie plops herself onto Lizzie's bed and turns on a video. 

"You wanna color?" She asks, pulling out the coloring books she keeps in her drawer for when he comes. He really likes coloring, and she likes being prepared.

"No," he says, looking like he's deep in thought. "I want you to teach me a spell."

"Have your moms started to teach you yet?" Josie asks. She's not really sure if they want him to be learning magic yet. Maybe they want to wait. 

"Moms say-"

"Josie," Freya says, walking up to Josie's open door. "Ready to talk?"

"Yeah," Josie nods. "Finn, why don't you go find Keelin?"

"But mommy isn't as fun as you!" Finn says, hugging her stubbornly. 

"Finn," Freya says, voice strict-sounding. Finn sighs, letting go of Josie. He grumpily leaves the room, Kylie following. "So, Josie, what's up? It's not very often you ask to talk to me. Actually, I don't think you ever have."

"Yeah, uh, there's just something I wanted to ask you about," Josie says. "Do you know someone named Hope Mikaelson?"

"No," Freya says. "The only Mikaelson family members left are me, Kol, Rebekah, and the twins."

Josie can see the grief in Freya's eyes, and she feels bad for bringing it up. She knows that Freya misses her family, and she can't personally imagine losing her sister like Freya lost her brothers. "Why do you ask?" Freya asks after a moment of Josie not replying, deep in thought. 

"There's this girl," Josie says. "We figured out there was a supernatural kid at Mystic Falls High, so I went to find them. It was this girl who said she was a witch. I offered her to come to our school, and she refused. It shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I can't stop thinking about it. I feel like I should know something that I don't about her. So I used this book and found journal entries about a girl named Hope Mikaelson. Lizzie wrote them, saying this Hope girl was stealing our dad and I was sisters in solidarity with her or something. But I don't remember any of it, and neither does Lizzie. Something has to be wrong."

"Okay, well, there aren't any more Mikaelsons. I know that for a fact. I've never heard of anyone named Hope Mikaelson."

"She had auburn hair," Josie says, desperately. "Blue eyes. Really pretty but I guess that's subjective."

"Hang on," Freya says, pulling her phone out. After a few seconds, she shows Josie a picture. "Is this her?"

"Yes!" Josie exclaims, looking at a picture of the witch girl staring back at her. She looks a little younger, but it's definitely her. She's standing next to Freya for the picture, and they both look really happy. "So you do know her?" Josie asks.

"No," Freya says, slipping her phone back in her pocket. "She's in pictures at my house, and I'm in pictures with her on my phone. But I don't remember her. Not even a little bit. I know that I should, but I just don't. You seem to want to get to the bottom of this mystery, and I want to help you. Deal?"

"Deal," Josie says quickly, happy that Freya even believes her. Josie isn't really sure how she was actually expecting her to react, but she had definitely thought of the possibility that Freya wouldn't believe her.

They get to work.

~~~

A few days later, Hope is at her apartment, trying to get any information out of Clarke that she can, when she hears a knock at her door. There aren't very many options for who it could be, so she can't help being nervous about it as leaves the room and shuts the door behind her. 

When Hope opens the door, she comes face to face with Josie and Freya. 

"Hope Mikaelson?" Freya asks, clearly unsure of what she's saying.

"We need to talk to you," Josie adds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please like or leave a comment if you don't mind! Next chapter should be out soon! Sorry for the slight cliffhanger.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY. So this happens before last chapter. Normally if that happens it's because I'm being dumb but I did actually mean to do this like this. It's all leading up to what's coming, don't worry. The two story lines will be brought together next chapter. Sorry for another sort-of cliffhanger.

Hope wakes up feeling okay. She still needs to go for a short run, but she feels better than she has lately. Of course there's the unaddressed matter of the guy locked in her room, but he's fine there. At least, his presence isn't disturbing her too much. The quiet spell she cast works very well, and the only time it even matters is when she randomly thinks about it.

She tries not to. Clarke makes her think of Malivore. Clarke also makes her think of Landon. She doesn't want to think about Landon.

She goes through the school day with no problems. She gets hungry during second, but she's getting better at managing that, so it's fine.She does all of her work with little to no problems. She talks to Taylor in third and Tyler in fourth. She agrees to go to their house after school around six. It gives her over an hour for running through the woods, so that makes her happy. She did have time this morning, but it wasn't really enough. 

When all of her classes are over, she speeds home. She drinks a blood bag before tossing it out. She grabs some extra clothes to change into when hers inevitably get destroyed by the shift.

She looks around briefly before shifting. She's just starting to run deeper into the woods when she hears a voice. "What the Hell?" Tyler asks, standing near a tree, looking at her in shock. She thinks he probably saw her change, but she isn't entirely sure. Sye growls at him, hoping that she's wrong and he'll just go away. 

"Hope?" He asks, and all of her hopes of him not seeing that much fall. "Okay, either I'm hallucinating, or werewolves are real."

Hope thinks of letting him believe he's just crazy. She can run off into the woods, and he'll convince himself he was seeing things. But she doesn't want to make him think he's crazy. He doesn't deserve that. 

Hope, still in wolf form, grabs the clothes she brought with her teeth. She runs behind a tree to where he can't see her. Hope shifts back to being a human and puts her new clothes on before walking out from behind the tree. 

Tyler is still just standing there looking confused. "Am I crazy? Because either I'm crazy or you are a werewolf. Werewolves shouldn't even be real! What is going on?” 

Hope thinks of her options here. She may not particularly like compulsion, but it is something she can do. It’s an option that’s on the table, so she thinks about it. She could tell him to forget today, forget seeing her as a wolf. It would be easy. All she has to do is look into his eyes and say the words.

“Tyler,” she says, looking him in the eyes. He looks back at her, eyes filled with confusion. She tries to form the words, tries to tell him to forget. But she just can’t. Hope knows that it’s dangerous for him to know about her, for him to know about anything supernatural, but he’s her friend. 

If she erases his memory, she’ll always feel bad. It’ll make it so hard to see him when she goes to their house, and she won’t be able to even talk to him without feeling guilty. Tyler is a good person who has tried to help her many times. Maybe she should just tell him the truth. Maybe it’s time to stop hiding from everyone.

“I have a story,” Hope finally says, giving him the best smile she can with all the nervousness she's feeling. There's too much to lose here, but she's done with lying. “When it’s over, you can tell me if you want to still be friends.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed. Please like or leave a comment if you don't mind!


	20. A Little Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear this is building up to where I left off on 18. They come together, trust me. In the next chapter. Hope you enjoy. Sorry I'm complicated.

Hope does not know how to start this discussion. She convinced Tyler to come back to her apartment with her to talk. Can’t be too cautious, especially after she just got found out because of not being careful enough. The walk to the apartment was tense, but she’s still grateful he didn’t try to ask before they got back.

Now that the door is closed, though, Tyler is looking at her expectantly. Hope takes a deep breath. 

“I’m part werewolf,” Hope says, eyes turning yellow for a second. “I know that you didn’t know werewolves existed, but, surprise, we do,” she says with a pitiful laugh. She doesn’t want to lose him. She doesn’t want him to tell anyone else. She doesn’t want to have to erase his memories if this goes badly. 

“Oh. Well, that’s totally normal. Nothing insane going on,” Tyler says sarcastically. 

“Insane is kind of a basic part of my life,” Hope laughs before getting a little more serious. “I know this is a lot. If you don’t want to be around me anymore because I freak you out, that’s okay.”

“You’re my friend, Hope,” he says. “My friend that apparently has big secrets, but still my friend. That matters to me. Just… give me a minute to process.”

“Sure,” Hope says, giving him a small smile like she doesn’t feel like the world is falling apart. There are more secrets she’ll need to tell him, if she wants to be completely honest. But he needs to process one supernatural species before learning of two more. 

Tyler sits down on Hope’s couch, hands on his head as he processes all the information. After about a minute, he jumps up. “Okay, I’m good.”

“You’re… good?” Hope asks, confused at what’s going on. “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m cool with it. Like I said, you’re my friend. Besides, I have always thought mythical creatures were cool. It’s a big shock, obviously, but it’s kind of cool that at least one of them are real. Besides, who doesn’t want a werewolf friend?”

Hope laughs, feeling immensely relieved that he’s not angry with her or something. Then, he speaks up again. “Is there anything else that I need to know? About you? In general?”

“Yes, actually,” Hope says. “There are a couple of things. I’m also a vampire,” she adds. She figures doing this one species at a time might be best for right now. He got overwhelmed a minute ago; she doesn’t want to make him be overwhelmed again. 

“Vampires are real, too?” Tyler asks, eyes wide. “Do you, like, have superspeed? That sounds so cool. Do you actually have to drink blood?”

“Yes to every question you just asked,” HOpe says. “But I don’t hurt anyone or anything like that. There are a lot of ways to get blood bags.”

“Blood sounds gross. I hear it taste like metal. Taylor likes the taste of metal, so maybe she’d make a good vampire. I don’t know. How exactly does all that work? I didn’t know any of this existed, but I’ve never even heard of a combination of a vampire and a werewolf.”

“My father, Klaus. Was born a werewolf. It has something to do with a blood curse. Then my grandmother, a witch, turned my dad and his siblings into vampires. Dad didn’t know he was a werewolf until after he became a vampire. Vampires aren’t able to reproduce, but hybrids can, I guess. My mom was the alpha of a werewolf pack. They’re both dead now.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Tyler says, looking at her sympathetically. My mom died when we were two. She was addicted to something. I don’t know what, and I don’t want to make my dad think about it by asking. Anyway, she decided drugs were more important than us. She stole money from our dad to buy her drugs, and then she died. I know all of this second hand, though. I don’t remember any of it, so it’s not really that painful.”

“Knowing that a parent chose drugs over you sounds pretty hard,” Hope says, not wanting him to downplay anything for her sake. “My mom and dad both sacrificed themselves for me. To keep me alive. Sometimes I think maybe I’m not worth it,” she says with a sad laugh.

“Of course you’re worth it,” Tyler argues. “You’re parents clearly knew that too.”

“It’s just… from the second I was born, the universe has tried to get rid of me. Sure, it was other people, but does that even matter? As long as people know I exist, there will be people who hunt me. I know that I deserve to be alive, I guess. Just hard to believe sometimes, I guess.”

“I get that,” Tyler says with a sigh. “I mean, not exactly. But you’re right, I have thought about the fact that the women who should have loved me couldn’t choose me. If even she can’t love me, then maybe I’m not so great. But we can’t think like that, Hope. Just gotta look at the bright side.”

“Guess so,” Hope says, giving him a smile. “There’s one other thing I should probably tell you.”

“What else could there possibly be?” Tyler asks.

“You remember the mini earthquake in your living room?” She asks guiltily. 

“You and Taylor’s first fight,” Tyler says with a playfully mocking tone. 

“Yeah, well, I’m also a witch. And the room was shaking because I was upset and I didn’t really have great control of my powers. I’m a lot better now, though.”

“So, you’re a witch, a werewolf, and a vampire?” He asks, looking super confused.

“Yep,” Hope says. “Like I said, my grandmother was a witch. A very powerful one, at that. She practically invented dark magic. That’s part of why so many people want to kill me. The witch, werewolf, and vampire groups like to go against each other, hate each other enough to kill. I’m all three. That doesn’t get you points with any of them. Of course, not every supernatural creature thinks like that, but there are definitely too many with those views if you ask me.”

“Are there any others that are all three?” Tyler asks. Hope shakes her head.

“Only one of my kind,” she says. “But the people who aren’t blindly discriminatory can be really nice. I had some great friends before…” She trails off, not wanting to finish the sentence. 

“Before what?” Tyler asks.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” Hope says, crossing her arms over her chest. Tyler immediately notices how she’s trying to push him away a little.

“That’s okay,” he says because he’s never been one to pressure someone to talk about things they don’t want to. “Just one more question: Did Taylor know before me?”

“No,” Hope says, shaking her head. “She doesn’t know. I wasn’t really planning on telling anybody.”

“Cool! If I know first, that means I win. Don’t worry, though. I won’t tell her. I do think you should. She would be cool about it. She’d be freaked out, but she’d be okay.”

“I’ll think about it,” Hope says. It’s true that she doesn’t like lying and hiding things, and she definitely doesn’t want to make Tyler hide something from his sister. But this was a big enough risk, and she’s not really ready to tell another person who could potentially reject her. 

“Okay, I know I said one more question, but I have a few more. Like, can you bring me with you when you superspeed? It sounds fun? Ooh, and can you-”

Tyler is interrupted by a knock at the door. Hope stands up from the couch they’ve gravitated to, walking to the door. Tyler sits quietly, waiting to see what happens.

When Hope opens the door, she’s shocked to see Josie and her aunt Freya standing at her door. Neither of them should even know where she lives, and she isn’t really prepared to talk to either of them. Regardless of what she wants, Hope knows she’ll have to deal with the situation at hand. She just doesn’t really know how or even what it is yet. This should be fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or a comment!


	21. Basically an Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Josie and Freya talk to Hope(finally)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

“Hope Mikaelson,” Freya asks, clearly unsure of what she’s saying.

“We need to talk to you,” Josie adds.

Hope freezes, not knowing what to say. She doesn’t want to face either of them right now. She’s seen both of them before, sure, but she isn’t ready to talk to them about anything serious. They apparently know her last name. She doesn’t know what that means. Do they know everything? Are they here to question her? 

Hope gets taken out of her thoughts when Tyler speaks up as he walks over. “Mikaelson?” He asks, looking at her with his eyes raised. “I thought your name was Hope Marshall.”

“Who is this guy?” Freya asks, looking over at Tyler suspiciously. 

“This is my friend Tyler. He’s human. What do you two know about me?” She asks. She needs them to get to the point. Some part of her is majorly hoping that they did somehow get their memories back. She really wants them to remember her. She really wants to be able to really talk to them again. But she’s not an idiot. She won’t be an stupid, won’t let herself hope for too much.

“Not much, honestly,” Josie says. “We really have more questions than answers. Like why is your last name Mikaelson, but Freya has no idea who you are?”

“It’s a long story,” Hope says, and she’s entirely certain she wants to tell it. She’s been wanting to be able to talk to these people honestly for so long, but now that she has this opportunity, it’s hard. How can she explain everything? Talk about her dead parents, explain to Josie and Freya that they both deeply cared for her and just can’t remember it. It’s an insane thing to even think they would actually believe her.

Maybe she has to try, though. Maybe it’s not fair to them to leave them wondering, knowing some puzzle piece is missing but never really finding it. 

She starts explaining, and even as she says the words, she fears that they won’t believe her. She fears that Freya will hate her for being the reason for Klaus and Elija’s deaths. She fears that so many different things will happen.

She starts with explaining what she is. She tells them how it’s possible. Josie doesn’t get it at first, but Freya seems to understand fairly well. It’s clear she didn’t know, but she doesn’t seem to think it’s as impossible as Josie does at first.

She explains more. She quickly skims a few of the important things in her life, things that they should know that she doesn’t have time to vividly detail. She talks about her parents’ deaths, and even she doesn’t know how she gets through it. She feels like crying the whole time, and a few tears do fall. She mostly keeps it together, though. 

She explains that she was friends with Josie, sometimes. She explains that she went to their school and mostly isolated everyone. She explains how close she was with their father, to the point where Lizzie was jealous, and a look of recognition comes to Josie’s face when she mentions that. She talks about everything that happened through the year before her sacrifice.

She talks about the sacrifice. Josie knows what Malivore is, but Hope has to explain it a little for Freya. She explains how she threw herself in to stop her boyfriend’s father from potentially destroying the entire supernatural world.

They don’t talk much while she explains, leaving her to just say what she needs to say before commenting. When she’s done, though, they look ready to burst with questions.

“Your my niece?” Freya asks, looking over her as if she can figure out the truth by staring at her hard enough. Tyler is silently standing next to her, and knowing that he’s there is a little bit of a comfort. He isn’t saying anything, and he isn’t really doing anything, but it still helps. She knows she has at least one person on her side here.

“You used your blood to heal me? What? How do I not remember you if you saved my life? That’s way too big of a thing to forget,” Josie rants. 

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Freya asks. “How do we know you aren’t just making this all up?”

“Ooh,” Josie says, neither of them ever waiting for her to actually respond before saying more. “My dad has a lie detector thingy. We can use that on her.”

“Can I talk now?” Hope asks, eyebrows raised. They both look at her, waiting for her to speak. “I’ll do your lie detector test and whatever else you want. But after, I need you to leave me alone? I don’t want to be around a bunch of people who don’t remember me at that school? And explaining it to someone is different than them actually remembering it. I look in your eyes and I see how unfamiliar I am to you. That’s painful, okay? I just need you to get out of my life after this. And don’t tell anyone.”

She knows that it’ll be painful for them to leave, too. She knows they’ll still think about it. She knows that she doesn’t actually want them out of her life. But it’s what’s easiest for everyone, so that’s what she’ll do.

Freya negotiates that she gets to tell Rebekah and Kol, and Josie argues that she shouldn’t have to lie to her sister about it. Hope agrees that they can tell those specific people, but that’s it. She’s not screwing up anyone else’s life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or a comment!


	22. Meet The Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm back. My life is a disaster right now, but I'm back! Also, my birthday is very soon! Also, I don't really know how to write a lot of the characters in this chapter, but I hope I did them justice. Hope you enjoy.

Hope wakes up feeling absolutely miserable. It's mostly because she knows what is happening today. According to Freya's negotiations, she has to re-introduce herself to her family today. She has to meet Kol and Davina and Marcel and Rebekah and Keelin.

She has to look into her family's eyes and see a lack of familiarity. They won't know her, won't have any memories of her. They won't love or care for her. Hope's not even sure she can handle it, honestly.

Looking at Rebekah, who took her to cool places and showed her cool clothes and told her about historical feminism. She'll have to look at Kol, who taught her cool spells when she was young and Davina who loved her and did everything she could to try to save her life. She'll have to look at Marcel who treat her like something between a niece and a little sister. He was the closest thing she's ever had to a sibling, and he always listened to her problems and tried to help. 

None of them will remember her, and she doesn't really know how to deal with that. She's missed them, and of course she wants to see them again, but it isn't worth how sad she know it'll make her to hear them asks who she is. 

She really doesn't know how much they'll know when she gets there. She knows that Freya made them agree to come, but she doesn't know what Freya has told them. She hopes that Freya filled them in on everything so she doesn't have to. 

It's selfish to want Freya to do that, and she knows it's selfish. She feels a little bad, even. Freya only knows what she told her, and Hope can't expect her to relay the information to someone else. But she still hopes that Freya did anyway. She was selfless when she dove into the Malivore pit. This is a much smaller sacrifice, and she's okay with leaving someone else in charge. 

She wonders what they'll think when they realize she's the reason for her father and uncle's death. Will they blame her for it? Will they hate and despite her for causing their deaths? She blames herself. She always has, regardless of what others say, so it wouldn't be a far stretch for them to feel the same. They don't love her anymore, so they won't think that her life is worth theirs. 

After contemplating if she should go back to sleep until she actually has to go, she decides against it. It'll just make her more unprepared and nervous. 

After pacing around her living room for ten minutes, Hope has an idea. Tyler knows now, and he's always been a good friend. She's done the pushing people and her feelings away thing before, and that never worked out for her very well. She thinks of Alaric telling her not to make the same mistake twice, to let people be there for her. She dials Tyler's number.

Ten minutes after their phone-conversation ends, he's standing at her door. "Hello, my werewitchpire friend."

"Werewitchpire?" Hope asks, letting him in and shutting her door. 

"Well, yeah. You're all three, so combining them is the easiest way to say it. I also thought vampwitchwolf, but it doesn't flow as well."

"You are so weird," Hope says with a laugh. He's already making her a little less nervous.

"Says the werewitchpire!" He defends playfully. Some part of her worries about another person calling her weird, thinking of her negatively, but she knows he's just joking around.

"Tribrid is the easiest descriptor I've found," Hope informs him, "But just my name works, too."

“Alright. Hope Marshall, my tribrid friend.”

“It’s actually Mikaelson,” Hope tells him. “But don’t say that around Taylor. It’s part of my big secret supernatural life.”

“Your secret is safe with me, Mikaelson,” Tyler says, nudging her playfully. “Anyway, let’s move on. You said you needed to talk about something. Are we just talking about your last name? I mean, that’s fine. I love talking to you, but I feel like there’s something deeper going on, especially considering recent events.”

“Yeah, there is,” Hope agrees. “I know you heard Freya when she said I had to meet my family today.”

“Yeah,” Tyler agrees. “But is meet really the right word? I mean, you’ve already met them, right? They just don’t remember you?” 

Hope flinches a little at the harsh way he words it, but she knows he’s just trying to be sure of what he’s heard. “Yeah,” she says with a sigh. “It’s just- I don’t want to introduce myself to these people who don’t remember me or love me anymore. It’s complicated, but I don’t want to see them not know me.”

“Makes sense,” Tyler says, walking over to her couch. Hope follows and they sit down. “But I mean, isn’t it worse to not see them at all? At least this way, maybe they can still be in your life. You’re their family. I’m sure they’ll love you once they meet you. You’re very lovable, even with all your secrets.”

“The people at my old school would disagree,” Hope says. Tyler looks at her curiously. “I was a lot more closed off there, pushing everyone away all the time. I didn’t have any friends. I had only just realized that was a bad way to live when I tossed myself into the pit.”

“Did you-” Tyler stops for a second. “Did you know you would come back? Or were you just okay with dying? Because being self-sacrificial is not a character trait I look for in friends. I’m not gonna like friend-dump you. I’m just wondering.”

“I didn’t know exactly,” Hope admits. “I knew that it was an area of nothingness, basically. I knew that monsters hated it, saying it was awful. And no, I didn’t know I would come back. It was my life or the life of all supernatural creatures. It’s not really a fair competition.”

“I guess,” Tyler says. “I don’t know. I just feel like self-sacrifice isn’t the way to go. Even if there’s no other way, it just feels wrong. You didn’t deserve to die or whatever. But I guess I get it. I probably would too, realistically. It just sucks to think of you doing it. We care about you, Hope.”

“I know,” Hope says, looking at him with a smile. “Thanks for coming by the way,” She adds, laughing to diffuse the serious situation. 

“No problemo, Hope Mikaelson. Do you want me to stay?”

“Can you-” Hope pauses, thinking about if she should ask. He’s the only friend she has who knows everything, and she feels like she’s bothering him too much already. But it would really help to have him with her. To have one person who really knows her there, even if they haven’t known each other that long. She still doesn’t feel like she should bother him about it.

“You know,” Tyler says, as if reading her mind during the silence. “I could go with you. To meet your family. I should probably meet my friend’s family. I mean, you met me through Taylor, and I’m awesome. Maybe it’ll be great. Besides, it’d be saving me from a lot of boredom. It wouldn’t be a problem at all.”

Hope laughs. “Thank you,” she says with a smile. Just then, there’s a knock at the door. Hope stands up, walking over to the door, and Tyler follows her. Freya is standing on the other side, waiting for her. “He’s coming,” Hope tells her, leaving no room for objections. She walks out, not waiting for a reply. She’s happy when she hears two pairs of footsteps following her.

They take Freya’s car to the meeting spot. Freya and Tyler don’t have superspeed, and Hope wants to keep Tyler with her, and Freya’s kind of the one orchestrating this whole thing. It takes them twenty minutes to get to the meeting place which is apparently a park that happens to be empty. That feels a little risky, but Hope isn’t really in charge of the situation, so she doesn’t say anything.

When they get there, Marcel and Rebekah are walking up. Davina and Kol are already there. 

“So, Freya, my most annoying sister, tell me why we had to come all the way to this dreadful place,” Kol says.

“Parks aren’t dreadful, Kol,” Davina patronizes. 

“Everywhere is dreadful if I’m told I have to come without a reason,” Kol argues with his normal amount of sass. Davina punches him on the arm, rolling her eyes at him. 

“Actually, yeah, why are we here?” Marcel asks. “I mean, we kinda had plans, and-”

“Who are you?” Rebekah asks, letting go of Marcel’s hand and walking closer to Hope. It’s the first time any of them really notice her, and she’s staring intensely at Hope and Tyler. 

“I’m Tyler,” he says, trying to fill the silence when Hope freezes at the question. She can’t help the momentary freak out. He puts a hand on her shoulder, trying to comfort her. “This is my good friend, Hope.”

“Hi,” Hope finally says after taking a deep breath and trying to calm herself. 

“Hope is the reason we’re here,” Freya explains, looking over at the girl. “Hope, would you like to explain?” 

Hope feels like laughing and crying at the same time. She doesn’t have much of a choice. The only real way to get out of this would be to hide from Freya, and she doesn’t want to have to leave Tyler and Taylor. Besides, she can’t hide forever. She doesn’t plan on telling anyone other than her family, and she’ll keep hiding it from the humans. But she won’t lie to the people she cares about anymore.

“My name is Hope Mikaelson. My parents were Hayley Marshall and Niklaus Mikaelson,” Hope starts to explain. 

“Klaus doesn’t have any kids,” Marcel interjects, and Hope really feels like crying. Her brother/uncle has no idea who she is. She knew that would be the case, but it still hurts so much.

“Well, I mean, you’re kind of Klaus’s son,” Kol points out.

“I resent what you just said,” Marcel says. “You should remember I could still kill you.”

“Sure, but Rebekah would break up with you,” Kol taunts. “You couldn’t deal with that. Also,” Kol pauses, turning to Freya. “Can we eat the human boy?”

Tyler steps back in fear just as Hope steps in front of him. She could stop them with a spell, but it’s just instinct to step in front of him.

“You may not,” Hope says, glaring Kol down.

“I don’t like her,” Kol decides, looking away from her with an eye roll. “She won’t let me eat him, and she’s very confident for a child whose neck I could snap.”

“Kol,” Davina says warningly, shooting him a glare. 

“Sorry, love, but come on. I’m hungry, and he’s boring. She’s annoying, like Niklaus. Maybe she is his daughter.”

“Kol!” Freya says at the same time Rebekah says, both angry at his words about their deceased brother. Kol just rolls his eyes, knowing that they would agree if he was alive. Why hide it?

“I am his daughter,” Hope says, diverting their attention back to her. “I’m a witch, werewolf, and vampire. I’m a tribrid. Freya can have a piece of my hair to do an ancestry tracking spell, if you want. I don’t care. She said I had to introduce myself to you guys. Now that I did, can we go?” Hope asks angrily, turning to the aunt that brought her here.

“I suppose you did hold up the deal,” Freya says. “I am bringing Keelin and the twins to meet you, though. I know that you’ve already met Kylie, but she didn’t know who you were, so it doesn’t really count.”

“Bring them later, then. Tyler and I are leaving,” Hope says, walking away, gesturing for Tyler to follow. She can walk back to the apartment, but she doesn’t want to look at them any longer. She hates how they all don’t know her. 

“Hang on,” Davina says, and Hope turns back around to look at her. “If you’re parents are… deceased, where are you staying? Are you alright?”

“Compelled myself an apartment,” Hope says. “I’ll be fine. None of you need to be fake-nice to me. I know you don’t remember me.”

“I was seriously worried,” Davina argued. 

“If you’re my niece,” Rebekah says, clearly in deep thought, “I’ll have to get to know you. I can’t just let my brother’s daughter be without her family, after all. And I certainly can’t have my niece dressing like that. Now, that is dreadful.”

Hope looks down outfit. Combat books, black leggings, and a black shirt. Okay, so maybe she can’t really argue. “I think she looks great,” Tyler argues. When Kol looks over at him with raised eyebrows, he shrinks back behind Hope in fear. “Your family is scary.”

“Oh, is human boy your little boyfriend?” Kol asks mockingly. 

“No,” the two of them say at the same time. “Tyler is my friend. He’s just defensive.”

“Yeah. There’s this boy in school that I’m trying to get with,” Tyler says. He’s normally not so lose with the information that he likes boys as well as girls, but these people’s opinions don’t really matter, and he knows Hope will keep him safe. 

“Anyway,” Rebekah finally cuts in. “I simply have to take you to Paris. We can go on a shopping spree, and we can tour around Paris as well. Marcel will come along. Davina and Kol and Freya and Keelin can as well! We’ll make it a family trip!”

“I don’t want to go to Paris,” Hope says, and Rebekah’s excited expression falls. “I mean, not right now or too soon. Right now, I just want to go to my apartment.”

“Oh,” Rebekah says with a sigh. “I suppose that’s acceptable. But we simply must do it another time.”

“Totally,” Hope says with a smile that’s much more real than she would’ve expected it to be. It hurts that they don’t remember her, but at least Rebekah and Davina still care for her a little. “For now, bye guys. Tyler, come on.”

He runs behind her, still scared that one of his friend’s family members will kill him. They make their way back to Hope’s apartment. It takes a little longer than she’d really like it to, and they don’t talk much on the way because there are people walking around. 

“You’re family is really freaking scary,” Tyler says when Hope shuts the door. “That one guy kept talking about eating me! And one of them threatened to kill another one!”

“I’m sorry that you were scared,” Hope says sincerely as she walks over to her couch and he follows. “And yeah. They’re intense. Marcel isn’t, like, biologically family. My father kind of sort of adopted him. My aunt is in love with him, though, so he’s something between an uncle and a much older brother. Kol is the uncle that kept threatening to eat you, and he’s never liked Marcel much. Rebekah’s the one who invited me to Paris. She’s my aunt. I call her Aunt Bex. The one who asked if I had a place to stay is my Aunt Davina, married to Kol.”

“I mean, context is nice, I guess,” Tyler says. “I’m a little caught up on uncle/brother guy. That’s insane. Also still thinking about one of them asking eating me. Does he mean, like, literally, or…?”

“I mean, they are vampires. Not really eat you, eat you. More like… kill you by drinking all of your blood,” Hope says. “Don’t worry, though. I won’t let any of them hurt you. Promise.”

“Okay, thanks,” Tyler says, smiling at her. “I kinda need to go home. Taylor needed the car tonight, and I drove here. Is it cool with you if I go, or do you still need me? Screw Tay if you do.”

“Bring the car to your sister. I’ll be fine,” Hope assures him. And she really means it. Today wasn’t perfect by any means, but now all of the stressful things she had to go to are over, and she still has her friend to talk to whenever she needs to. Her life is okay, even if not perfect, and it’s the first time in a while she’s felt that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a like or a comment if you can!


	23. Taking a Break(or maybe not)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may not be very good at all. My last few days have been hectic and I'm trying to help my dad find a place to live and get ready for my exams. But I will update again soon, promise. Also I am now legally an adult.

The next day, Hope wakes up feeling like garbage again. She’s not really sure of the reasoning for her misery, but she opts out of going to school. She wants to just take a break for a day. It’s not like she has a parent around to demand that she go to school unless she’s sick. There had to be at least one positive to being an orphan, right?

She texts Taylor and Tyler to let them know she won’t be there, and they both send her get well soon messages. She decides, after a few minutes of just laying there, that she should probably check on Clarke.

She goes to the room Clarke is in, making sure that her silence spell and the ropes are still in place. Hope doesn’t even have to hear him to know that he’s saying annoying things. After staring at him for a moment as his mouth opens and closes, trying to form words that won’t come out, Hope makes a decision. She modifies the spell so that only she can hear him. 

“Hey, Clarke,” she says. He glares up at her.

“Mikaelson,” he sneers. “You are a very annoying person. Or tribrid. Or whatever you want to call yourself.”

“Well, you’re pretty annoying too. Just thinking about that, actually. How are you enjoying your captivity?” She asks.

“It’s just lovely,” Clarke bites out. “How are you enjoying not seeing my brother? Do you like having no one remember you? Your friends, your family, the boy you’re madly in love with.”

“It’s great,” Hope says with a fake smile. She knows it’s not very believable, but she won’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her upset. She’s in charge here. “I love being able to start over. None of the people who hated me remember me either. And, for the record, I’m not madly in love with Landon.”

The last part is added defensively. Just because she’s adopted a new policy about holding things in doesn’t mean she’s going to talk to Mali-jerk about it. She really doesn’t understand how Landon and Clarke are related.

“Please,” Clarke scoffs. “I was there when you confessed your undying love, remember,” he asks with a smirk. Hope rolls her eyes.

“Yeah, I remember. You tossed the artifact into Malivore, and I had to sacrifice myself,” Hope says angrily. “And for the record, no one ever said undying or madly in love. You made that up.”

“Whatever,” Clarke says with an eye roll. “You gonna let me go now or leave me to annoy you forever? Not that the second option would work. You really can’t keep me here forever.”

“You’re wrong,” Hope says without a flicker of doubt. “Because you made me sacrifice myself, I’m stronger than ever. I can use all three parts of myself, and I am stronger than you could ever hope to be. And no one cares for you. It’s pretty obvious that no one would ever want to be near you based on your personality alone. And they wouldn’t remember you if they did. So, who’s going to save you?”

Clarke’s smirk falters. “You can’t keep me here forever. I’ll annoy you for all of eternity, and you can’t deal with that. And it’s not like you can kill me.”

“Maybe not,” Hope shrugs. “But isn’t that just worse for you? You don’t get an escape. You’re just stuck here forever. I can do whatever I want. You can’t do anything.”

“Whatever,” Clarke says, looking away. He knows that she’s right, but he won’t admit it. And she’s not expecting him too. 

Hope leaves the room without another word, shutting the door behind her. She hears him as she walks to the kitchen. He’s yelling about how Landon doesn’t love her anymore, doesn’t even remember her. He says that Landon has probably fell in love with someone else by now. It hurts Hope to know that that’s true. She really needs to readjust the spell to include her again, but she doesn’t have the energy right now. She opens the fridge to see that all but one of her blood bags are gone. She’s thinking of how she needs to rob another blood bank when Clarke’s screaming gets louder. 

“None of your friends remember you! That teacher guy, whatever his name was, has no idea who you are! Your friends and family wouldn’t even care if you were dead. Why don’t you just follow your parents’ path and sacrifice yourself again. Not like anyone would care. Other than, maybe, that dude that keeps coming over, but he’d get over it. Probably just be happy to not have to lie about you to his sister anymore.”

Hope drops the blood bag, vamp-speeding back to the room he’s in. She’s just realized that she has an endless blood bank in the other room, and it’ll shut him up for a while. She doesn’t even say anything to him when she walks in. She just sinks her fangs in and drinks until he passes out. 

She cast the spell to keep him quiet for whenever he wakes up and leaves the room. She decides to lay down for a while, but she’s interrupted by a knock after about ten minutes. When she opens the door, she sees Rebekah and Tyler standing at the door. Tyler looks terrified. 

“What’s going on?” Hope asks, looking at Rebekah. 

“I went to your school to find you, but they said you weren’t there. So I made them call your darling friend here to show me the way. He was hesitant at first, but compulsion is a beautiful thing. Anyway, I came to-”

“Tell him he can do whatever he wants,” Hope demands. Rebekah rolls her eyes with a sigh before turning to Tyler and doing as Hope says. As soon as her eyes are no longer looking into his, Tyler runs over to stand behind Hope. 

“What the hell? Why did I listen to you?” He asks, still looking so scared. 

“It’s called compulsion,” Hope says, looking back at him sympathetically. “Vampires can control human’s minds by looking into their eyes and demanding they do what they’re told. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about that. I just think my aunt would go to my school and force you to bring her here,” Hope says, turning to Rebekah angrily.

“Oh, please, he’s just a stupid human. It’s not like I harmed him. I don’t see the harm.”

“Don’t compel my friends,” Hope says. “I don’t care what you want from me. Leave them out of it. You could’ve just asked Freya.”

Rebekah sighs. “But I was already at the school, and I thought it would just be easier. If it bothers you that much, I won’t compel him again. You’re no fun. I wouldn’t think Klaus’s daughter would be so dull. I’m a little disappointed.”

“Why are you here, Rebekah?” Hope asks. They left off on good terms yesterday, and she was looking forward to the idea of actually spending time with her family, but this is getting annoying. Rebekah made Tyler bring her here against his will, and she still hasn’t said why she’s actually here. 

“Fine,” Rebekah says with a dramatic sigh. “Freya and that child witch asked me to fetch you. They said they have an idea to restore everyone’s memories of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment. Seriously it's move motivating then you think it is. But thanks either way.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I would like to say that I am very sorry for taking so long to upload. I'm also very sorry that this chapter doesn't actually have much happening in it, but I swear I will do my best to update again soon. Life's just been kind of hectic, and I am so so sorry. I would also like to say that I have never watched Vampire Diaries, just TO and Legacies. I don't know if vampires can actually access memories, but I'm pretty sure they can because of that one seen in TO with Roman finding out where Hope hid Hayley. Idk. I hope this makes sense. Also I didn't do much editing because I really wanted to get this out, and I know I won't have much time tomorrow. Don't want to make you guys wait any longer. Super sorry for the wait! Hope you enjoy

“What?” Hope asks, looking up at her aunt with disbelief.

“I feel like what I said was fairly easy to understand,” Rebekah says. “Josie and Freya think they’ve found a way to restore everyone’s memories of you. Now I just have to get you to that school.”

“It’s not possible,” Hope says because it isn’t. It isn’t supposed to be. When she first got out of Malivore, she hoped that someone someone would remember her, but even then, she knew it wouldn’t happen. Malivore erased her, and she’s lost hope of that ever being reversed. She’s content with what she has now, and she really didn't think she could get that part of her life back. Knowing that she may be able to is shocking, and she doesn't even know how to process it.

Even aside from the fact that it doesn't make any sense, there are other problems too. Of course she wants to be remembered by the people she cares for, but she feels like it'll make her feel guilty. They all seem happy without her. They don't seem to be in very much danger, if any. She may not have caused the Malivore thing, but she knows that she brings danger with her everywhere she goes. Maybe it's better if they aren't involved with her.

They're happy without her, too. Landon and Lizzie are together, and they're happy. She knows that she's made Lizzie miserable so many times, even if it wasn't intentional. She doesn't want to do it again. If they're happy together, she doesn't want to ruin it. Not to mention, what if Landon doesn't love her anymore? What if all of her friends don't care for her anymore? Just because they have their memories doesn't mean they'll associate the same feelings with them. There's just so much to worry about, and she doesn't know what to do about any of it. Besides, she still doesn't even know if it's actually possible. 

There is a part of her that's hopeful, buried under all of that worry. She tries to shut it down, though. Hoping for things never really goes well for her, and she really had convinced herself it was impossible.

"Well, my sister and the little witch seem to disagree. Just come with me," Rebekah says, seeming to get irritated.

Hope wishes she could ask Clarke if it was even possible. He may know, he may not. But it would be worth a try. Judging by the lack of his angry screaming, though, she assumes he’s still incapacitated. She hates her awful timing. 

Rebekah’s standing there, staring at her impatiently. Tyler’s still next to her, silent like has been pretty much this whole time. He’s a little more behind her than he is next to her, but Hope can’t exactly blame him for being afraid of Rebekah. She turns to look at him.

“You should go back to school,” She says, looking over at him and giving him a small smile. “Sorry she made you come.”

“It’s not your fault,” Tyler says with a small smile. “You are definitely explaining how that works to me later, though. You’re right, though. I should go back to school. I ditch too many days already. See ya, Mikaelson.”

“Bye,” Hope says as he walks out the door.

“So will you come?” Rebekah asks. “Because, if not, I’m leaving. This is taking entirely too long. I do want to spend time with you, darling niece, but I am not patient enough for this.”

“I’ll come,” Hope says. 

“Lovely. I’m going to go ahead and go back. You can catch up,” Rebekah says before vamp-speeding away. Hope closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself before she makes her way to the school. Just thinking about what could happen is nerve wracking. 

After taking a few minutes to calm down as much as she possibly can, Hope leaves, making her way to the school. She doesn’t know what will happen. She doesn’t know if it’ll work. She doesn’t know what everyone will think of her if they remember her, doesn’t know if Landon will still love her or Lizzie and Josie and Alaric will even care for her. But she has to try. She has to know. It’s worth a shot, even if it doesn’t work out how she wants.

When she shows up at the school gates, Alaric is standing there. “So, are you the girl that’s had my daughter mercilessly studying to try to find ways to remember? Did I know you?” he asks. 

“You did,” Hope says, and she feels like crying. Alaric isn’t her father, and she meant it when she told him that. Klaus will always be her dad. But Alaric is the closest thing she’s had to a father beside Klaus. She loves him, and she hates knowing that he doesn’t remember her. Even if he might remember her soon, it’s still so hard to look at him, knowing he doesn’t know her.

“Can I go in?” Hope asks, not actually waiting for him to say anything in response to her previous statement. Alaric nods, typing in the code for the gates to open. “Where are Josie and Freya?” she asks as she starts to walk through the gates with Alaric. 

“I’ll take you to them,” Alaric says, looking at her like she’s a risk to bring into his school. Like she’ll attack someone if he’s not watching her. She really, really hates this. “So, were we like close or?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Hope says, voice strained. She thinks she might actually start crying if she has to talk about it. “With any luck, you’ll remember soon anyway.”

“I guess that’s fair,” Alaric says. “We’re here,” he says, opening the bedroom door that they’ve made their way too. Hope sees Freya, Josie, Lizzie, and Rebekah waiting on her. Alaric walks in first, and she briefly wonders if leaving is still an option. But she doesn’t. She walks in.

“Hey, Hope,” Josie says, standing up. Freya and Rebekah are sitting on Lizzie’s bed, and Josie and Lizzie are on Josie’s. Lizzie stands after Josie does. Hope wonders if Josie told her everything that she knows. She wonders if Lizzie without her memories hates her as much as Lizzie used to. If she had to guess, though, it’s pretty likely Lizzie’s just annoyed to have to be here. Although, Hope isn’t really sure why she is. 

“Hey,” Hope responds. “So, what is this spell that can restore everyone’s memories?”

“Well, Lizzie and I siphon magic. Memories aren’t magic, so we can’t just take them from you and send them to others.”

“But,” Freya adds. “We started thinking. Since vampires can access other people’s memories, we thought that maybe that could help. Like, get a vampire to access your memories, then try to get Josie and Lizzie to siphon from there. Since a vampire looking into someone’s mind is inherently magical, they may be able to siphon both you and the vampire as it happens. It’s a little more complicated, honestly, but the exact process is a lot to explain.”

“Honestly, there’s no guarantee it’ll work,” Josie says. “Actually, there’s about a five percent chance it will actually work. But it’s worth a try.”

“I’ll go get Kaleb,” Alaric says, walking out of the room. Hope stands there awkwardly, not really sure of what to do until they start the process. Luckily for her, Kaleb and Alaric walk in fairly quickly after Alaric leaves. 

“Can we get this going?” Kaleb asks as he walks in. “I got things to do.”

“It’ll only take a little while,” Josie says. “I think.”

“Let’s get this going,” Lizzie says. “I’m getting bored. I highly doubt this girl is worth this much of my time.”

“Lizzie!” Josie reprimands. Lizzie just rolls her eyes.

“I kind of want to get this on the road, too,” Hope says, not wanting to have to listen to sibling bickering while she’s so anxious about what’s to come. She’s scared to see what will happen, of course. But once she knows, regardless of how good or bad it is, she won’t have this anticipation making her feel horrible.

They get started.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love it if you liked or left a comment. It really inspires me to write more lol.   
Sorry again.  
Spoilers about 2x01  
Also, about that season premiere, that is not how I would have expected Clarke and Hope's interactions to go. It kind of makes me want more of them in the show. Not in this, obviously, but with the way the show did it, I think it was a really interesting dynamic. Wish it didn't end so soon.  
Also, Hope seeing Landon and Josie kiss was very sad.   
She said it didn't work because she wasn't a full tribrid. So does that mean we'll see her be a full tribrid in the show because I would love that!  
Hope talking to fake landon was interesting and very saddening. Like when she asked if they were happier now made me so sad. I was already writing that into this, but it's much sadder to actually see Danielle play Hope being so selflessly amazing and depressing. Anyway, thanks again for reading and sorry for the ranting.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry for the wait! I actually have PSATs today so I'm super nervous, but writing helps so yeah! Hope it's better than I think it is! Enjoy

The spell is kind of a blur to Hope, really. It happens pretty quickly, and she's too anxious to focus on the actual spell. She still doesn't even entirely understand how it works. 

She tries to focus on other things, but it doesn't really work. Even though the spell is short, her thoughts are fast and it gives her entirely too long to think. To think about what's going to happen next. About how they'll all feel about her. About how Lizzie and Landon will feel. About if they don't remember her. She's tried to keep herself from getting her hopes up, but she can't help feeling disappointed when she thinks of this failing. She thinks about everything.

When the spell ends, she's snapped out of her thoughts. Everyone is staring at the area around her, but they look frozen. Their eyes look hollow. She waves her hand in front of Kaleb's face, but his gaze doesn't move. He doesn't blink. Neither does Lizzie. 

It takes what feels like forever but probably actually amounts to a minute for them to snap out of it. Most of them look around, trying to understand what's happening. Then they look back at her.

"Oh my God. Hope!" Josie says, flinging herself at Hope. Lizzie quickly joins in, and Alaric doesn't take very long to join in after. 

Hope feels overwhelmed, wrapping her arms around all three of them to the best of her ability. She's reminded of how short she is while hugging them. It normally annoys her, but she isn't bothered by it right now. It feels nice that their taller. It feels nice being in their arms at all. She's missed them so much. 

She can't help the tears that start streaming down her face. She feels kind of bad about getting Josie and Lizzie's shirts a little wet, but she can hardly bring herself to care. She's just so happy. She's so happy that they know who she is and that they still care about her. 

They don't pull away for a while. It feels like both an eternity and not long enough when Kaleb's voice snaps them out of it and they break apart.

"Okay, well, glad to have the memories back and all, but I need to go find MG. I told him I would meet up after. And from the memories, it doesn't seem we know each other that well, anyway. See ya."

He walks out, not waiting for a response. Hope doesn't mind. He isn't wrong. They were never close, barely talked at all, really. The fact that he brought up MG makes her want to see him, though.

After a couple seconds of standing there, unsure of what to do next, Lizzie stumbles back as if realizing something new. "You and Landon," she says. It's not really a question, but it's also said with a lot of uncertainty. Hope doesn't know why it took this long to dawn on Lizzie. It makes sense, though, if she thinks about it. There were a lot of memories streaming into everyone's brain, and Hope's relationship with Landon wasn't that important to Lizzie, really. Maybe it just took longer to register. 

"Me and Landon," Hope says, really not sure what to say. This is one of the parts that she was majorly dreading, probably even what she's worried about most when thinking of it working. She doesn't want to ruin what they have.

"Knew I couldn't be that lucky," Lizzie says with a bitter laugh, sitting back down on her bed. She's not looking Hope in the eyes, and Hope feels really bad. She sits down next to Lizzie, and Alaric and Josie join in.

"I'm not here to take him from you," Hope assures. She would love to have Landon back. She really would. So much more than she could ever explain to anyone, but she won't destroy their relationship for her benefit. Landon's moved on. He likes Lizzie. They deserve to be happy, even if it doesn't make Hope happy.

Lizzie shakes her head. "I saw you guys. You clearly had something much stronger," she says softly. Hope's surprised she isn't more angry, honestly. She tends to get more defensive. Then again, she has no idea about most of what's happened since she left. The Lizzie she remembers would never date Landon in the first place.

"I'm really sorry," Hope says sincerely because she really isn't sure what else to say. She really isn't here to steal Landon back. She isn't here to ruin anyone's happiness. But she can't deny that she loved Landon, that he loved her back. "I really don't want to steal him from you. He likes you, too. He moved on from me, and that's okay. You guys can still me."

"Oh please, thrift store hobbit didn't move on. He just completely forgot. It's different. And he might like me, but he loved you. I'm sure he still does. Whatever. I may be better at controlling my anger, but if I stand in this room arguing this anymore, I might actually do something I don't want to. I'm gonna go calm down in my room."

With those words, Lizzie leaves the room, not waiting for a response. "Lizzie," Alaric calls out, standing up to follow her.

"Dad, I've got it," Josie says, standing up. "I think she needs some twin time. I've got this, promise."

"I love you, Josette," Alaric says with a smile. "You're such a good sister.

"Love you too, Dad," Josie says as she stands up. "We are going to talk a lot later, Hope."

Hope can't help how excited that makes her. She can talk to Josie again. They can be friends again. Everything will be okay.

Once Josie is out of the door, Alaric looks at Hope. "I'm so sorry that I haven't been there for you lately," he says. Hope laughs. She actually laughs. It's a short, small laugh, but she laughs, and Alaric looks at her like she's crazy.

"Sorry," Hope says, looking serious. "It's just that there's no way you could've been there for me. You didn't know I existed. You have no reason to be sorry, but it's a very you thing to do. Be sorry about something outside of your control."

"I just... I can't believe I forgot you. I know that Malivore makes you forget, but it's just crazy that I could forget you. You're like my daughter. I love you, Hope."

Hope hugs him again, tears coming to her eyes for the second time today. She doesn't mind though. The crying doesn't bother her at all. She's just so, so happy. She has her old life back. She has the people she cares about. For once, she believes that things will be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! Please leave a comment and let me know


	26. Reality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took over a week. Not in the best situation right now but it'll be fine. Thank you guys for all the comments! I'm hoping to have another chapter out by Monday, but that's not a promise. Also this story is getting long. It's not really a problem, just that I've never written anything this long. And thank you to all of you because you are definitely a part of that. Couldn't do all this without your support.

The complete happiness and hope for the future really doesn’t last all that long. It’s not really that anything bad happens; it’s just that she’s reminded of the not-so-great consequences of the spell.

It’s been three days, and she’s been staying in her apartment, but she’s come back to see people every day. It’s a complicated situation. The people who loved her before do again, but they’ve also moved on with their lives for two months without her. Some act like nothing has changed, like no time has passed. Some act like she’s a distant old friend, the kind you’re polite and nostalgic with, but aren’t close to anymore. It’s annoying, but she knows this has to be weird for them. It’s weird for her too, so she gets it.

The big problem is Lizzie and Landon. Other than when Hope turned Raphael back into a human, she hasn’t seen Landon at all. It makes sense for Landon to want to spend a lot of time with his newly-restored brother, but Hope doubts that’s the only reason she hasn’t seen him at all.

She’s seen Lizzie, but it’s actually kind of worse. Every time Lizzie sees her, she sky rockets in the other direction. Hope is fairly certain Lizzie’s fourth block isn’t near the first year classes. Lizzie also leaves when she sees Hope with Josie in her room, giving some ridiculous excuse about going to the library. 

Hope doesn’t know what to do about either of them, but what’s worse is she doesn’t really know what to do about anything right now. Alaric insured her that he could enroll her immediately, but Hope told him to wait so that she could think about it. It seems obvious. The Salvatore school is where she’s always gone. She likes the Salvatore School, and she has friends who are treating her normal. And she wouldn’t have to compel herself an apartment or anything. She has always felt bad about that. 

But nothing in Hope’s life has ever really been easy, and decisions, especially this one, aren’t any different. She’s gotten used to her day to day life at Mystic Falls High. She’s gotten used to seeing Taylor pretty much every day in third block, seeing Tyler most days in fourth. And Tyler may know about her now, but Taylor doesn’t. Hope may hate lying, but she doesn’t want to tell her. Tyler has a tendency to be more understanding and less reactive. There’s no telling what Taylor would do, and Hope doesn’t want to freak her out either. If she leaves the school, Taylor will have so many questions and she’s just so tired of all the lies. Keeping a secret and directly lying are different things, even if she would really rather do neither.

That’s not even mentioning having to deal with the people who are acting weird. It’s true that Lizzie and Landon haven’t really allowed her a chance to talk to them, but she thinks she would probably be avoiding them if they didn’t decide to do it themselves. It’s just really stressful, and she doesn’t even really know what to say. It’s going to be a whole lot harder to avoid them if she comes back to the school. 

It’s also a little annoying that she would have to have a roommate. Dr. Saltzman says he feels bad, but they’ve gained a few people, and they don’t have any completely empty rooms available. She has no idea who she would have to room with, but sharing a room really isn’t her thing regardless. Even if she is getting closer to people and opening up more, she’s still pretty independent. It’s still important to her to have alone time. It’s not that big of a deal, really, but it would be inconvenient. She’s always had her own room because of being an only child.

There’s also the issue of Clarke, but it’s not really that big of a deal. All he does is sit tied up in the room, occasionally providing a snack. She could just get him locked up at the school with no problems. She does kind of wonder if Landon remembers Clarke, though. Lizzie and Josie were only trying to give everyone back their memories of her, but it’s not like Clarke wasn’t in some of her memories. 

There’s just a lot to consider.

After contemplating for a while, Hope decides that she needs to get out of her head for a little while. She does need to make a decision, but she knows that she won’t be deciding anything if she’s freaking out over it. She needs to calm down and think of other things. 

She decides to go for a run in the woods, checking more than before to be sure no one is around. When she realizes that no one is, she transforms. She stays in the woods, just running around, for somewhere around two hours. It’s kind of a long time, but she doesn’t mind. 

After her run, she thinks about it again. She’s still so conflicted, and she still doesn’t know what to do. She knows that Tyler is a good listener, and she knows that he’s pretty good at advice too. She kind of feels like she shouldn’t bother him with this, but she reminds herself that he said that he didn’t mind. She texts him to see if he’ll meet her at her apartment. He says yes. 

She can’t help feeling guilty while she’s waiting. She has no idea what Tyler was doing. Maybe he was having fun and she ruined it. And aside from that, what about the fact that he’s having to hide her secret from his sister? It’s hard enough for Hope, she can’t imagine how hard it would be for Tyler to lie to his twin sister. They fight, but they clearly love each other, and the last thing Hope wants to do is mess with the relationship they have. 

She wishes she could just tell Taylor, really. She hasn’t been seeing her very much lately and she doesn’t like it. She wants to hang out with her friend, but it’s just easier to hang out with people she doesn’t have to lie to. The thing is, she has no idea how Taylor will take it. She does tend to be more reactive than Tyler, and Hope doesn’t want to risk exposing herself to someone who might tell others. She can’t risk that and she knows it. It doesn’t stop her from feeling bad about it, though.

Tyler arrives after about fifteen minutes, and Hope is incredibly grateful when he walks through the door. She’s tired of waiting, of her mind thinking up a million reasons she’s a bad person of how she’s hurting Tyler and Taylor. There’s something about Tyler that’s just calming. Hope doesn’t really know what it is, but she really, really appreciates it. 

“So what’s up?” He asks, plopping down on her couch. “Oh, I also have some questions for you. Whatevers up with you can come first if you want, but I am still a little bit freaked out by that whole mind control thing. What’s it called again?”

“Compulsion,” Hope says. “All vampires have the ability to control a humans mind. I know it’s scary, but I will do everything I can to protect you from it, okay?”

“You’re a vampire, right?” He asks, and Hope hates the hint of fear in his eyes. He doesn’t look too scared, more cautious than anything. Hope still hates it, though.

“Partially, yeah.”

“Have you ever… have you ever compelled me? Or like Taylor? Or anyone?”

“Not you or Taylor,” Hope says. “I wouldn’t do that. Look, I hate compulsion. But I came back from the dead with no where to go. I do plan on paying for this apartment, but I needed somewhere to go until then. So I have compelled some people out of necessity.”

“And what constitutes what’s necessary? Who gets to decide that, Hope? What gives you that right? I was scared out of my mind, Hope. And you’ve done that to people. I love you. You are one of my best friends. But that isn’t okay.”

“I would never compel someone to do anything bad or anything that would hurt them or anyone else,” Hope says, and she feels like crying. Tyler coming was never supposed to make her more upset. She feels bad enough about forcing people to do things already. This is the last thing she needs right now. “It’s just an apartment, Tyler,” she says, and even she thinks all of her excuses are pathetic. It isn’t fair to take away someone’s free will for any reason, and they both know it. 

“I’m not calling you evil or whatever. I care about you, Hope. But thinking that someone or even you could make me do things that I don’t want to, even if they are small and barely matter, is so scary. I just need some time.”

“You’re allowed,” Hope says, and her voice is shaky. “Can’t make you stay.”

“Actually, you can,” Tyler says, looking away from her.

“I wouldn’t,” Hope says. “Tyler, I would never do that. You’re free to do whatever you want. You don’t even have to be my friend.”

“That’s not what I want,” Tyler says, but he still won’t look into her eyes. “I care about you. I already said that. Just give me some time to calm down a little bit, okay? Like a couple of days or something. I still want to be your friend. It’s just that I thought the supernatural stuff was cool, but it didn’t really occur to me that it was more dangerous and scary than cool. I’m an idiot, I guess. I just need some time to process, okay?”

“Even when you’re freaked out, you’re still trying to make me feel better,” Hope says with a sad life. “You’re such a great friend. And, yeah, I get it. Take all the time you need. And by the way, there’s this herb called vervain that makes you unable to be compelled. It also makes it pretty hard for a vampire to drink your blood. It’s like poison. Can’t stop them from killing you in other ways, though, so watch out. Don’t let suspicious people into your house. Vampires can’t enter without permission, so you should be safe. Just watch out. Being friends with me might put a target on your back.”

“Thanks,” Tyler says. “I promise I will be back soon. Who could ever really stay away from Hope Mikaelson?” He teases before leaving. 

Hope takes a deep breath once he’s gone. Today has been an extraordinarily long day. She doesn’t want to think about the decision she has to make. Tyler was supposed to help with that, but now she isn’t even really sure where they stand. She knows that he won’t tell anyone about her, trusts him not to, but she doesn’t know that he’ll ever not be a little bit afraid. And she can’t blame him. With what she is and who her father is, there’s no telling what she could do if she lost control. She loves her father, and she always will, but she can’t act like he didn’t do bad things. She can’t act like she doesn’t need to make sure to keep herself in check to make sure she never does that type of thing. It makes sense for people to be afraid of her.

Hope decides not to make the decision tonight. She can think about it more tomorrow, but for today, she just wants to get some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! In addition to that, thanks for waiting and for all the nice comments. I'd love it if you continued to comment because it is really inspiring and makes me want to write more!   
Also about the last two episodes.  
Episode 2: "I'm Klaus and Hayley's daughter" and "You're the closest thing I have to a father now" made me want to cry. Also the milkshake thing. I liked Maya. Don't really care for Ethan yet. Worried about Josie. Glad Lizzie's doing well.
> 
> Episode 3: Did not like as much as the previous two but it wasn't bad. Glad Raphael is back and sad he doesn't remember her. Why is Sebastian invisible? Hope with braids is adorable. "Bury little ms. milkshake." Josie really needs to calm down. Especially after breaking a kids arm. I do find it kind of funny that Josie used to have a crush on Hope and is now jealous of Hope because of Landon. "You're a werewitch." I mean, yeah, basically. Just throw in one more species. Landon and Raphael hugging was great and also I'm worried about Raphael. Also, just because I don't care for Ethan does not mean I want him injured. someone needs to witch fix him immediately. Also, I am loving Haya(Hope x Maya) Not really seeing Hope and Ethan but maybe I will later. (His name is Ethan, right? I'm not really sure.) Unrelated, I love Sebastian's confusion when Lizzie is happy that he's a vampire.  
Josie is really getting darker and I'm kind of excited to see where that goes. Lizzie isn't the only one who should be in therapy, apparently. I'm excited to see what she'll do and find out now that she's trying to learn about Hope.  
I love that Lizzie is like their best player and everyone is kind of begging her to play the whole episode.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. This is not very good but I really tried and I really wanted to post something despite just wanting to sleep all the time. Hope you enjoy! Hopefully see you soon!

Hope asks Alaric for a couple more days to decide. She knows she needs to make a decision. While waiting, she hasn’t been going to school at all. It’s only been like four days, but that’s still time that she’s going to have to make up no matter where she goes. Not that two days will matter at the Salvatore school when she definitely has a lot more to make up for all that time she missed. A part of her wishes she could just keep not going to school so that she never has to actually choose, but she doesn’t really want to drop out. Besides, her parents would’ve never wanted that for her. They sacrificed so much for her, even their own lives, and she doesn’t want to disappoint them. She doesn’t really want to drop out anyway, but if she wanted to, she knows that she wouldn’t. 

She's thinking about it and wondering what Tyler is thinking about, when he'll want to see her again, when she hears a knock at the door. She opens it to see none other than Tyler's sister.

"Taylor, hey," Hope says with a smile. She's missed Taylor, so she's happy to see her. Though she is wondering what she's doing here.

"Tyler gave me your address," Taylor says with a small smile. Hope that's okay. It's just been so long since we've hung out, and I wanted to at least check and make sure you're doing okay. You haven't even been at school. I miss you."

"I miss you too," Hope says, and she really does mean it, even if having to lie and hide things does stress her out. She has really missed her. "I just haven't been feeling well lately. I'm sorry. Should've texted you."

"Yes, you definitely should have," Taylor says half-jokingly. "But since I love you, I guess I can forgive you. Can I come inside?"

"Uh, that might not be such a good idea," Hope says quickly.The lack of furniture other than what the apartment came with may make Taylor curious, and she can't imagine what would happen if Taylor happened to open the fridge. "I've been all sick and it's just a mess."

"Oh, okay. You're right, better that I don't go in. I'll just start cleaning stuff instead of talking to you. But can we go somewhere else? I really wanna hang out. Unless you're still feeling miserable, of course. Would your parents be cool with that?"

"They're very chill," Hope says instead of flinching because it's a whole lot less heavy than saying her parents are dead. Not to mention that she would have to give some excuse for who she's living with. She's not technically old enough to live alone.

"So you can come?" Taylor asks, clearly hopeful and excited.

"Yeah," Hope says, but then she realizes something. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Well, I might have already had an idea when I came here. There's this new mall that just opened, and there's a craft store. It's supposed to be really cool, and it's mandatory for me to check out every new craft store in this area because I'm me. Obviously we don't have to go right now. I mean, I can go another time, but I would really love to go with you right now. Please!"

"Sure," Hope says with a laugh. Truthfully, she doesn't want to go to the mall. It's kind of far, and she can't speed if she's with Taylor. Car rides and walking feel so much more annoying now. So time consuming.But it's not that big of a deal. Besides, she still doesn't want to think and it has been too long since she's hung out with Taylor. She's missed her friend, and she's not about to let her impatience ruin this. She needs this.

"I made sure I had the car today," Taylor informs her as the walk down the steps. "Tyler's all whiny about it. He wanted to go to some party, but Dad wasn't letting him anyway. I mean, not that he would really know since he's never even home."

"Why not?" Hope asks.

"He just works a lot. He normally doesn't even get home until like eleven. I just miss him. I only get one of my parents, and it seems like I don't even have him. It's mostly just me and Tyler. I guess Tyler wouldn't get in trouble if he didn't stay out too late. I don't know. Either way, it's my turn with the car."

Hope doesn't say anything in response. She just opens the car door as they reach it. They don't talk much during the ride. Taylor turns her music up pretty loud, and she just lets herself get lost in it. Hope lets herself do the same.

It's takes them around fifteen minutes to get to the new mall. It's a little bit less frustrating than Hope was expecting due to the not completely awful music. When they get there, they talk as they walk inside.

"Okay, listen," Taylor says. "We don't have to go to the craft store first, but I would really, really like to. Seriously, I'm going to be thinking about this whole time. So we don't have to, but please, please, please, can we?"

"Sure," Hope says, laughing as the doors shut behind them as they walk in. Honestly, it's probably best they go there first, anyway. Hope has a feeling that Taylor would be rushing a lot if they didn't. It's very clear that she is incredibly excited about seeing the new craft store. 

The craft store just so happens to be closer to the back of the store than the front, and having Taylor drag her through the mall isn't the most pleasant experience. She wishes she could just vamp-speed there. Walking is tedious, and she hates being told to speed up when that's all she wants to do. Fast walking without super speeding isn't her strong suit. 

All of the rushing is surprisingly worth it when she sees the way Taylor's face lights up when they get to the store. She's not even really annoyed about Taylor dragging her in. She's missed Taylor, and she really likes seeing her happy. 

Taylor is ranting about how annoying it is that some of the supplies are already out of order when Hope hears hears a familiar voice. 

"Finn, come on. It's time to go home!" The voice says. Hope looks over to confirm her suspicions. And just like she thought, Keelin and Freya Mikaelson are standing a few isles over with Kylie and Finn. Hope really hopes that they haven't seen her and that they won't. She hasn't really seen any of them since everyone's memories were restored. Kylie and Finn never knew her before, but there's so much to talk about with Freya and Keelin. She doesn't want to have to deal with all of that yet. 

Unluckily for her, as they're leaving, Freya just so happens to see her. "Hope," Freya says, halting her steps to talk to her. 

"Freya," Hope says, giving her a small smile. "Been a while."

Freya seems to be trying to think of something to say, but she doesn't say anything. She just engulfs Hope in a hug. Hope breathes a sigh of relief, wrapping her arms around her aunt. Keelin joins in soon after, and it takes them a little while to separate. Hope can't stop the tears falling down her face. She's missed them so, so much. 

"We, um, we have to go," Freya says. "We have a lot to do today. But later tonight, we should do something. I'll ask Vincent to watch the twins, and we can go out to eat and talk or something. There's so much to catch up on."

"Sounds great," Hope says, and she really does mean it. She's anxious about the questions that will inevitably get asked, of course, but she is really happy that things seem semi-normal.

"Great. See you later. Have fun with your friend," Freya says, glancing at Taylor. That's when Hope finally realizes that Taylor is still standing right there. She's seen everything, and she has no idea what's going on. This is going to be a great conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or a comment!


	28. Conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote some of this at 3am when I was acting in a way that one of my sister's said made me seem high, so no promises about it being good. For the record, I was not and am not high. But still. Love you guys and all of your lovely comments! I plan to upload another chapter soon of the thing with Freya. I just don't have Wi-Fi at my house right now so it's hard

"So," Taylor says once Hope turns back to her. "Who were those people?"

"Just some family I haven't seen in a while," Hope says because it's a fairly easy express and it's the only one she can think of. 

"Oh," Taylor says, seeming to let it go. "That's cool. I hate that I don't know anything about your family, though. I never realized that before. We should talk about it some more. Like, do you like your parents? Are they chill? Is your extended family nice?"

"I love my parents," Hope says, not missing a beat. "They're great. Extended family is nice."

She hates the lying. She misses her parents, and wants to be able to talk about it to her friend. Not lie to her friend about it. None of this is okay.

"Got any crazy aunts or uncles? Tyler and I have an uncle. His name's Perry which I think is a dumb name. Tyler always laughs because it makes him think of Phineas and Ferb. Anyway, he's, like, totally insane. Always has some crazy plan or idea. It's actually kind of entertaining, though."

"My aunt Rebekah wants to take me to Paris," Hope says. "I have an uncle named Kol who is kind of crazy. But he taught me a lot."

"What kind of crazy stuff does he do? Did he teach you how to make a margarita? Perry did. We were five."

"Wow," Hope says with a laugh because kids really don't know how to do that. She doesn't know how to answer her questions, though. Most of the crazy things Kol does involve killing people, and she can't tell Taylor that. And he taught her a lot of magic when she was younger, and she would love to talk to Taylor about magic, too, but she can't say anything about it. 

She's living a whole life that Taylor knows nothing about, and she feels so bad for all the secrets. "He never taught me how to make a margarita," she says. "He's just very... adventurous," Hope adds, and it is true. Kol is adventurous. It's just not the whole truth. 

"Hm," Taylor hums as she starts to walk, Hope following her. "Paris sounds fun. My family could never afford that. We hardly even talk to the others any more. Even Uncle Perry isn't around much at all. And he's crazy, but I mean, I would like to see him. Of course, most of them look at us like charity cases when they do see us. The poor kids with the dead addict mom. I mean, I want to see them, of course, but it would be great if they could just look at us like all the other kids in the family, without all the sympathy. It’s nice and all, but it’s exhausting. Then, of course, there’s my grandma. She told my dad not to marry my mom, and she always talks about how she knew it. Acts like we’re just mini versions of Mom.”

“That sucks,” Hope says. She doesn’t know what to say, really. Taylor’s never really talked about this before at all. She doesn’t talk about deep things. She looks uncomfortable doing it now, but she also looks like it’s something she’s been wanting to talk about for a while. “You don’t deserve to be treated like that.”

“Whatever,” Taylor says, getting a serious look on her face as she looks around. “Enough of that. Wanna go to the food court? I’m hungry.”

“Sure,” Hope says with a smile, following Taylor as she pays for the new supplies she bought and walk out to where the food is. On the walk there, Taylor asks if Hope has ever tried New York Pizza. She has. Taylor asks if it’s okay to order or if she wants something else, and Hope just shrugs. She doesn’t really care anyway. It’s not like she actually needs to eat. 

“My mom is dead,” Hope says halfway through her pizza. She’s tired of the lies. Maybe having one less will make it easier. Besides, she hates hiding so much when Taylor was just being so open about her own mom. She feels like crying as she says it, but it feels nice to tell the truth. 

“But you said-” Taylor starts. 

“I lied,” Hope says softly. “I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I’m so sorry that happened,” Taylor says.

“I was 15 at the time. It wasn’t super recent. But yeah, I’m sorry, too. I really miss her.”

“I don’t miss my mom,” Taylor says honestly. “I know that sounds messed up, but I don’t even remember her. She died when we were two. All I’ve ever really had was my dad. Same goes for Tyler. Just the way it’s always been. I can’t imagine losing a parent that I was actually close to.”

When Hope doesn’t respond for a few minutes, not knowing what to say, Taylor speaks up again. “What about your dad? Is he cool?”

“He was,” Hope says. “He died. Two years ago, shortly after my mom did.”

“I’m sorry,” Taylor says again. “But who are you staying with? If they’re both… y’know, gone?”

“I live with my aunt,” Hope lies. At least the one she’s lying about now is alive. That’s something.

“The one that wants to take you to Paris?” Taylor asks. Sure.

“Yeah,” Hope lies again. She should really start to count her lies. Not that she could keep up with them with how often she lies. 

“Sounds like fun,” Taylor says. “We could never afford Paris. I’d love to go someday, though. 

“Maybe you could come with us,” Hope says. She doesn’t know why she says it. After she does, she regrets it. Taylor can’t come. Too many vampiric things will be going on. She just stopped thinking about all of that for one second, and now she has to lie and say Rebekah said no or something.

“That would be so cool!” Taylor says. “Do you think they have craft stores?”

“I don’t know,” Hope says with a shrug. “I’ll have to ask my aunt, though. No promises.”

“Got it. You wanna go anywhere else? Heard you make plans for later and I get it if you want to go home to get ready or whatever.”

“That’d be nice,” Hope says with a smile. 

“Let’s go,” Taylor says as she stands up and throws away her empty plate. Hope does the same. 

“I can walk,” Hope says. “Been needing to get more exercise.”

Another lie. “Okay,” Taylor says, but her face shows that she thinks Hope is insane for wanting to exercise. Truthfully, she doesn’t want to. She just wants to be able to super speed home instead of riding in the car.

She acts like she’s just walking until she’s out of everyone’s range of vision before vamp-speeding home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Please like or leave a comment!


	29. Long Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how slow I've been with updating, but I do think I'll be getting back to it now. I have wifi now and not a ton to do. Hopefully I'll have another chapter out soon! Hope you enjoy!

After leaving the mall, Hope heads to her apartment. As she’s draining a blood bag, it occurs to her that Freya didn’t tell her a time or a place for their meeting. She doesn’t even have Freya’s number, and she knows that Freya doesn’t have hers either. She could go to the school and try to find her, but it sounds like a lot of work when Freya may not even be there. Freya knows where she’s living. Hopefully, she’ll come to pick Hope up. 

Hope sits down on her couch and reads the overdue library book she got a while back. She’s been too distracted lately to remember to bring it back, but she knows that she really should. Not that it’ll matter if she switches schools. Another thing to think about.

She’s halfway through the chapter when she hears a knock at the door. She gets up and opens the door, expecting to see her cousins and aunts. Instead, Elizabeth Saltzman is standing at her door with Landon Kirby. Landon looks nervous, unsure of what to do or if he should even be here. Lizzie just looks determined. The determination in her old friend’s eyes scares Hope a little bit, having no idea what she’s planning.

“Hey, Hope,” Lizzie says, breaking the silence. “Can I come in?” The blonde adds, but she doesn’t wait for an answer. She just walks in. 

“Hi,” Landon says awkwardly. He doesn’t move from the door, even as Lizzie shamelessly flops herself down onto Hope’s couch. 

After a few seconds of awkward staring, Hope finally tells him to come in. Landon gives her a small smile, walking into the apartment and following Hope over to the couch Lizzie’s sitting on. He sits between the two of them, and Hope can’t thinking about how hilarious that is in an weird way. Landon looks kind of scared, like something bad’s going to happen. Like he’s expecting a monster to come from the hall. Lizzie looks bored and annoyed.

“Okay,” Lizzie says before either of them can even try. Not that they’d know what to say. “I am incredibly tired of all the awkwardness and avoidance. We’re both in love with Landon. It’s time to talk about it. I’m going to start screaming if we don’t get past this annoying weirdness.”

“You’re in love with me?” Landon asks, eyes shooting over to her. 

“Not the point right now, hobbit,” Lizzie says, but Hope can tell that she didn’t mean to say it. She’s clearly a little bit flustered. But she has a mission, and she won’t let Landon’s questions distract her. 

“What is there to really say?” Hope asks. “You two are together, and you really like, apparently love, each other. You’re happy, and I want you to be happy.”

“Stop doing that,” Lizzie says, shaking her head. “No Hope Mikaelson selflessness. None of that self sacrificing attitude. It’s what got us here in the first place.”

“I want you to be happy,” Hope repeats, not really knowing what else to say. 

“You should be mad,” Lizzie says with a sigh. “I kinda stole your boyfriend. Total bad friend move.”

“Do you want me to be mad at you?” Hope asks, eyebrows raised in confusion. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t know he was my boyfriend. You didn’t even know I existed.”

“I want you to be a part of this discussion without just sacrificing your happiness. I love Landon, okay? Whether I want to right now or not. But so do you, and it’s not helping either of us to act like this isn’t a problem.”

Hope sighs, trying to think of what to say in response. Luckily, Landon talks before she has to actually come up with something.

“Can I say something?” He asks. Hope and Lizzie nod. “I love you, Lizzie. And I love Hope. But it feels like it’s been so long, even though it’s only been like two and a half months. I forgot you existed, and now it just feels weird and different. I want to be your friend, Hope. I will always want to be your friend. But at least for now, I don’t think we should be anything else. And Lizzie, I don’t think that it’s fair to you for us to be together when I don’t really know how I feel about Hope. Maybe we just all need a break, some time to think before we rush into anything.”

Just as Hope is about to respond, there’s a knock at her door again. Everyone looks at the door. 

“I think that’s a good idea,” Hope says as she starts to walk to the door. 

“Yeah,” Lizzie agrees, but Hope can hear the sadness in her voice. Hope feels bad that she can’t do anything to make her feel better. They did both just kind of get broken up with.

Hope opens the door to see Freya, Keelin, and the twins standing there. “Guys,” Hope says, turning back to her friends. “I kind of had plans to hang out with my family. Are we done?”

“Yeah,” Lizzie says as she starts to walk to the door. “See you later. Have fun with these little weirdos,” Lizzie says, looking down at the twins. Kylie sticks her tongue out at Lizzie. Landon leaves quickly after, sending her an apologetic smile. 

Once the two of them are out the door, Hope looks back at her family. All of them are smiling except for Kylie. Kylie is looking at her with a death glare. It would be incredibly intimidating if she wasn’t a little kid.

“So,” Freya says. “Hope, meet our son, Finn. You’ve kind of already met Kylie. Kylie, Finn, this is your cousin, Hope.”

“You lied to me,” Kylie says before anyone else can say anything. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were? Why would you hide it?”

“Kylie,” Freya says in a soft voice, but it still sounds like a warning.

“No, it’s okay,” Hope says, bending down so that she’s at eye level with her cousin. “You’re right. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to cause problems. I should’ve told you. I’m sorry.”

“You better be,” Kylie says, but she looks considerably less mad. “You need to make it up to me, though. I have an idea: teach me some offensive magic.”

“Not happening,” Freya says before Hope gets a chance to respond. “Not until you’re older and know how to use it responsibly.”

“Whatever,” Kylie says with an eye roll. “Can we go? I’m hungry.”

“Yes, we can,” Freya says, “if Hope’s ready.”

“Good to go,” Hope says with a smile. They all leave her apartment together. Keelin drives while Freya sits in the passenger seat. Finn sits on one side, Kylie in the middle. Hope sits behind Freya, and she can’t help wondering why Kylie wanted to sit next to her. She doesn’t seem to like her all that much. She also notices that Finn is looking out the window, never glancing anywhere else. He seems really quiet so far.

They talk about where to go to eat. Kylie begs for Chinese, Finn looks out the window silently, Keelin suggest Mexican, and Hope and Freya say they’re fine with whatever. Kylie’s the loudest, and Keelin doesn’t mind backing down. 

They get to the Chinese restaurant within five minutes because it’s close. It’s mostly awkward silence on the way there. The second they stop, Kylie starts rushing Finn to get out. Apparently, Chinese is her favorite. 

Once they’re all sitting down with their food, Freya speaks up. “Rebekah wanted me to tell you that she is dying to spend some time with the niece she’s missed out on a summer trip with. She’s busy doing something right now, but she wanted me to tell you. Marcel is very excited to see you again as well. Davina would also love to see you. Kol would too, not that he’d ever admit it.”

“Can’t wait,” Hope says. “Might want to wait until summer to go on any big trips with Rebekah, though. I’ve missed enough school.”

“Why would you want to go to school?” Kylie asks, eyebrows raised and food still in her mouth.

“Kylie,” Freya says with that motherly warning voice, and Kyle rolls her eyes. She doesn’t say anything.

“Anyway, how is school going, Hope?” Keelin asks, setting her fork down and looking over at her.

“Fine,” Hope says. “It’s just… now that everyone remembers me, I’m still trying to decide between going back to the Salvatore school or staying with my new friends at my new school.”

“Well, I would suggests the Salvatore school. We’ll probably send the twins soon. It’s a great school, but I know you already know that.

“It is a great school,” Keelin agrees, “but it’s your choice. Just find what feels like home. Don’t worry about how it’s going to affect others. The decision is about you.”

“Thanks,” Hope says with a smile. It doesn’t magically fix her problem, and she’s definitely still going to think about how it affects others, but she still appreciates that Keelin is trying. It’s good advice, even if she doesn’t really know how to follow it.

“I think that school should be outlawed,” Kylie says. Finn smiles, but he doesn’t say anything. 

“That’s not going to happen,” Freya says. “Might as well accept it and move on, Kylie.”

“Anyway,” Keelin says, “Freya says all you have in your apartment living room is a couch? No TV or anything?”

“Well, I had to compel myself the apartment and the couch,” Hope says. “And it’s basically stealing, so I didn’t want to get anything unnecessary. And now, I might be living in a dorm room at the Salvatore school soon, so I don’t know.”

“Is there anything in your room? Do you even have a bed?” Freya asks with concern.

“The couch is comfortable,” Hope says, trying to sound convincing. “The room is where I lock up my arch nemesis,” she adds. She’s half joking. Clarke isn’t worthy of the word arch-nemesis. Kylie laughs. Freya and Keelin raise their eyebrows in concern. “Kidding,” she says. “He’s not my arch-nemesis. More like an annoying pest that happens to be my ex-boyfriend’s brother.”

“What?” Kylie asks, eyes wide. Freya is looking at her with wide eyes and worried curiosity.

“My ex-boyfriend was the child of the mud pit that consumes supernatural creatures and makes you forget them. He’s also the guy that was walking out when you guys got there. His brother, Clarke, tried to raise Malivore. That’s why I had to throw myself into the pit in the first place, so that Malivore couldn’t rise.”

“Wow,” Kylie says. “I wanna fight bad guys. I don’t want them in my bedroom, though. I like my bed. I bet they’d be annoying.”

“Are you sure you can’t do something else with him? Other than keeping him in your apartment?” Keelin asks.

“He’s a hazard to society. Trust me, everyone is better off without him. I may give to Doctor Saltzman, though. Let him lock him up.”

Freya looks like she wants to say something but isn’t sure what. She seems to drop it, though. She goes back to eating.

“Your name is Finn, right?” Hope asks, looking over at the boy in the corner. He looks at her and nods shyly. 

“He’s not good with new people,” Kylie says as she twirls some Lo Mein on her fork. “He’s really shy.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” Hope says, smiling at him. “You’ll just have to get to know me. So I won’t be a new person.”

Finn smiles and nods. Freya and Keelin have big smiles on their faces. Kylie is eating with a bored expression on her face. After a minute, Kylie speaks up. “Can we leave now? I’m done, and I want to get back home. Or at least somewhere I can lay down. It’s been a long day.”

Freya laughs, and Kylie glares at her like she’s betrayed her. Everyone else agrees to leave, too, since they’ve all pretty much finished eating. They listen to music on the ride, and they drop her off at her apartment. Before they leave, Freya gives Hope a paper with Rebekah and her phone numbers on it. Hope goes back to her apartment and lays down. It has been a really long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please like or leave a comment if you enjoyed! It's very motivating and I love to hear what you guys have to say! Thanks for reading!


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm back and I'm proud of myself because it really hasn't been that long! Anyway, hope you like this chapter. Please leave a like or a comment if you don't mind.

Hope sleeps in the next day. It’s a Saturday. Not that it would really matter considering she doesn’t know which school she’s going to. She knows she needs to figure it out, and she’s been thinking a lot about it, but she just doesn’t know.

She spends the day just hanging out and reading until she hears a knock at the door. She opens the door, not really knowing who she’s expecting. She’s still surprised to see Tyler standing there. He hasn’t been here in a while. She certainly doesn’t mind, though. It’s been too long since she’s seen him, and she really has missed him. All she wants to do when she sees him is hug him, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t exactly where they stand. He said he’d be back and that he still wanted to be her friend, but he was freaked out and she doesn’t know how he feels.

“Hi,” Hope says, wishing in her mind that they’re okay. She wouldn’t know what to do if he said they couldn’t be friends anymore. She would understand; she knows her life is crazy, especially to a human, but she would still hate it. 

“Hey. I’m back,” Tyler says, walking in without asking. It’s a little comforting. He doesn’t seem afraid. 

“Yeah,” Hope says. “Good to see you again.”

“Found some vervain,” Tyler says as he sits down on the couch. “Really good thing, too. I trust you, but I can get really paranoid, and I don’t know what other vampires feel like getting into my head. Anyway, I’ve gotten calmer about all the supernatural stuff. I’ve been meaning to come by, but I’ve been kind of busy. Do you wanna do something? I’m very bored.”

“Yeah,” Hope laughs with relief. “Yeah, what do you want to do?”

“In the mood for Chinese?” Tyler asks. Hope can’t help laughing at the irony. “What’s so funny?” He asks with a smile.

“I just ate Chinese yesterday. I don’t know. Just seemed funny.”

“That is kinda funny,” Tyler says with a laugh. “So, do you not want Chinese? Tired of it?”

“I mean, kind of. If that’s what you want, though-”

“This is a democracy, Mikaelson. We make a choice together. But I do have an idea. The mall has a food court. We can eat together and both get a diverse selection of foods. I can get Chinese, and you can get whatever you want. Not that we have to go to the mall. It’s just a suggestion.”

“Sounds good,” Hope says. 

“Can you, like, superspeed us to the mall?” Tyler asks, eyes widening. “It would be so cool. I mean, I’m still freaked out by certain aspects, but super speed still sounds incredibly fun.”

“More convenient than fun,” Hope says. “You cannot imagine how slow walking and ever car rides feel when you’ve gotten used to just running at an incredibly fast speed.”

“You’re right,” Tyler says. “I can’t imagine that. But I would like to be able to. That’s why you should super speed me to the mall.”

“Sure you wanna do that?” Hope asks. “I imagine it’s pretty confusing for a human who isn’t at all used to it.”

“Yes, I’m sure. But you’re really not going to do it are you?”

“Well, I didn’t say that,” Hope says with a smile. She grabs his arm and speeds to an empty place near the mall. When she stops, she immediately looks at Tyler to see how he’s doing. He looks shocked, but it quickly turns into a big smile.

“That was awesome!” Tyler says. “I mean, definitely confusing and disorienting, but awesome. Can I pay you to bring me everywhere? Like all the time?”

“Well, I’m not a taxi. I do have things I need to do,” Hope says jokingly as she starts to walk the rest of the way to the mall with Tyler following her. “I will bring you to your house if afterwards if you want, though.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Tyler says excitedly. “Wanna eat something?” He asks as they walk through the doors. The food court is the first thing they see, so it really would be the best time.

“We can,” Hope says.

“Well, I mean like are you hungry? Do you want to eat something?”

“Well, I’m a vampire. We don’t really get hungry for food,” Hope says with a laugh. It’s after she says it that she realizes that it might freak Tyler out. “However, some mall food is pretty good. So I am all for eating. Wanna go get Chinese?”

Even though he had already said he wanted Chinese, Tyler debates what he should actually eat. He talks about each of the different available food place. Apparently, his love of cooking makes him very critical of other people’s cooking. He’s not a jerk about it. He’s just overly critical. It takes him ten minutes to pick a place, but Hope can’t even be annoyed. It’s actually kind of funny how intense he is about his food choices. 

Tyler ends up choosing Chinese anyway. Hope just gets a slice of New York Pizza because it’s easy. 

Going to the mall with Tyler is different than going to the mall with Taylor. That’s something that Hope finds out very quickly. For one, even though Tyler agrees that they might as well look around, he doesn’t seem to have any idea where to look. Taylor headed straight to the craft store, but Tyler doesn’t seem to know where he wants to go at all. He just walks around, looking at the stores as he passes them. He makes jokes about things he sees in the windows that he thinks are funny, but he doesn’t seem interested in looking inside of the actual stores. He seems a lot more interested in just walking and talking.

“So how’s all the stuff with your family going?” He asks, looking over at her as they pass Hot Topic. 

“Pretty good,” Hope says honestly. “I met my cousins. I mean, I had already met one of them, but I met them, like, for real. One of them is really sassy and doesn’t seem to like me. The other one is incredibly shy and barely talked to me. I think it’s going to take a while to get close to them. But my aunts have been great. My uncle Kol hasn’t really said anything, but it’s actually pretty normal for him to keep his distance. My relationship with my family is back to normal. It may not be perfect, but it still makes me really happy.”

“I’m really glad you’re so happy. You deserve to have good relationships with the people you love. I do have another question, though. When are you going to come back to school?”

“I’m not,” Hope says, and she shocks herself when she says it. She didn’t really know she had made a decision until the words came out of her mouth. “I’m not going back.”

“You’re not?” Tyler asks, eyebrows raised. “Life sucks sometimes, but I feel like dropping out of school isn’t the best choice. I mean, it’s up to you. But I wouldn’t suggest it. Also, I would miss you.”

“I’m not dropping out,” Hope says, and as she starts to explain, she slowly gets more certain of her decision. “I’m just changing schools. To the school I went to before I threw myself into Malivore. I don’t want to leave you guys. It’s just… it feels like home. And it’s for supernatural kids so I don’t have to hide from anyone while I’m there, and I’m just so tired of hiding. That’s not even mentioning that if I go there, I don’t have to keep feeling guilty for staying in an apartment for free. It’s just easier. And it’s not like I’ll be far away. The school is nearby, and we can still hang out. I’m sorry that I’m leaving, though.”

“You don’t have to apologize or justify it for me, Hope,” Tyler says. “All that matters it that it’s the right thing for you. I trust your decisions. Just promise me you’ll still hang out with your lowly human friends,” he jokes.

“I promise,” Hope says, laughing. “I don’t know what to tell Taylor, though. I can tell her I’m transferring schools, but I can’t fully explain to her why I made that choice. What if she gets mad that I’m leaving her?”

“Taylor will be fine,” Tyler reassures her. “I know my sister. Even if she does get mad, she’ll just throw herself a little pity party and she’ll get over. At most, she’ll be upset for a week.”

“I don’t want her to be mad at all,” Hope sighs. “Guess I can’t really control that, though. I just want everything to be easier. Being at that school is easier despite all of it’s complications and I need to go to the place that feels like home.”

“I told you,” Tyler says. “You don’t have to justify it to me. So, are you going to start at that school on Monday?” 

“Don’t know yet,” Hope says. “Haven’t told the headmaster that I decided yet. Don’t know if he can set it up that fast. Though, honestly, he probably already did. I’m pretty sure he really wants me to go back there. We’re really close.”

“Well, good luck to you in your new school. Or old school, I guess. The point is, good luck.”

“Thank you,” Hope says with a laugh. “The sad part is that we won’t really be able to skip class together. Then again, it’s probably not the best idea anyway. I doubt you’d be very good for my attendance record long term.”

“I highly doubt that I am good for anyone’s attendance. At all. Anyway, is there any specific store you wanna go to?”

“Will you act out dramatic romance books for me?”

“It is a blessing and a curse to have my amazing acting talent,” Tyler says dramatically. Hope laughs, and they make their way to the book store. They spend the rest of the day just hanging out at the mall until it closes, and Hope has the best day she’s had in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. I'd appreciate it if you left a comment or a like!   
About the newest episode: I do not like Josie and Landon. At all. I think it's cute that Raphael is looking for Hope, though. I love Hope and Lizzie together and also ship them a little bit so I loved the new episode! Also love the whole "we don't exist for one path" thing. It's a good message and I really don't want Hope to just sacrifice herself again lol.  
Anyway, thanks for reading! Hope you all have a lovely day.  
(Also, Jas, sorry that this isn't going how you want, but this is the direction I had in mind and I hope you'll stick with me lol. She'll still see her other friends a lot. Don't worry.)


	31. Meet The Roommate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm back again with a kind of short chapter. Hope you enjoy and thanks for waiting!

As it turns out, Hope is right about Alaric. He already has her whole schedule ready. He says he just wanted to be prepared, and Hope is glad that he made that choice. As unprepared as she is to go back to school at all, she’s also ready. Sitting at an apartment is boring.

Hope hands Clarke over to Alaric, explaining what a bad guy he is because she isn’t sure he knows about it all. Alaric locks him in one of their transitional cellars. Hope redoes the spell she used to keep him quiet.

Alaric also already set up the room she’s staying in, apparently. She does have a roommate, but he doesn’t really tell her much about her. Her roommate isn’t there when she “moves in.” Of course, it barely even counts as moving in. She gets rid of the couch, and she really doesn’t have anything to bring. She adds her blood bags to Dr. Saltzman's school stash. She knows it won’t be a problem to get some if she needs it.

Hope is reading another book when her roommate walks in. Her eyes are a pretty green color and her little-bit-shorter-than-shoulder-length hair is dark brown. She’s pretty tall, but to be fair, everyone looks tall to her. The girl is probably somewhere between Josie and Lizzie’s heights, realistically speaking. Hope would guess somewhere around 5’7. The girl doesn’t look very happy, and it seems to take her a moment to realize that Hope is even there.

“Oh, hey,” she says. “Are you my new roommate? I mean, I’m assuming and hoping you are. Otherwise, you’re some mysterious person who is in my room.”

“Roommate,” Hope confirms with a small smile. “My name is Hope.”

“Arya Quinnell. Dr. Saltzman wouldn’t tell me much of anything about you. Said I should ask you myself. So what are you?”

“A lot of things,” Hope says with a laugh. “I’m a combination of witch, vampire, and werewolf. Daughter of Klaus Mikaelson.”

“Woah,” Arya says with wide eyes. “Well, I am just a werewolf. Though, I certainly wouldn’t mind not having to transform every full moon.”

“There are bad things about being a hybrid, too,” Hope informs her. 

“Don’t worry,” Arya says with a sigh and an eye roll. “I’m not trying to drink your blood or something. Sounds gross and creepy and totally not a thing I want to do. I was just saying it sounds easier.” 

“I guess it is in some ways,” Hope shrugs. “So, what do you like to do?”

“Most of the time I’m hanging out with my girlfriend, but other times I really just listen to music and write.”

“Cool,” Hope says. The way Arya is looking at her makes Hope think she’s nervous. If she had to guess, it would be about telling Hope she has a girlfriend. Arya just looks unsure of what’s going to happen, and Hope feels like she should say something reassuring. It’s not like she’s judging. She’s definitely not 100% straight either. She just doesn’t know how to make sure Arya doesn’t think she’s judging her. 

“Cool,” Arya repeats when it takes too long to respond. “So, what about you? What does the almighty Hope Mikaelson like to do?”

“I like drawing,” Hope says. “And hanging out with my friends.”

“Yeah, I heard everyone forgot about you. Sounds painful. Must be nice for everyone to remember you again.”

“It is,” Hope confirms. “Do you have any siblings?”

“Big sister, little brother. Little brother is fifteen and he goes here. Big sister never triggered the curse so she’s just going to normal school. She likes it there with her friends. Besides, she’s a senior and doesn’t want to switch. I just got to this school recently. The triggering was an accident, though. Don’t worry; I won’t kill you in your sleep.”

“Supposedly I’m hard to kill,” Hope says. It’s kind of an assumption considering she’s never been killed before. She died when she threw herself into Malivore but that was before her vampire side was awakened. Now, she isn’t really sure what can kill her and what can’t. Does she have the immortality of her family or of a normal vampire? She has no way of knowing without actually dying, so she doesn’t plan on testing it.

“Well, I promise not to try,” Arya says. “Anyway, I just came by to grab my car keys. Going on a date. I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah,” Hope nods as Arya goes over and grabs her keys. After she leaves, Hope sits on her bed, thinking about what to do now. She’s gotten used to boredom, but it’s even worse because she’s finished and turned in all the books she had. She thought she would be able to get new books from the library at this school, and she can, but she doesn’t feel like walking all the way there. She decides to just take a nap until later. Even if she didn’t really have anything to pack or bring, moving is still a tiring process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or a comment and let me know what you think! Hope you enjoyed!


	32. Breakups and Makeups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. I know it's been way too long, and I know that this is way too short. But I do promise that I'm trying, and this chapter helps set up something that's coming soon, so it is important. I really am sorry that it's taking so long. I've just been struggling lately, but I would like to thank anyone who has stuck with me. I hope you enjoy, and I hope to have another chapter up soon. Hope you enjoy

Hope doesn’t talk to Tyler and Taylor for a little while after starting school. She’s just so busy catching up and trying to get back into the swing of things. She’s missed a lot. Landon is still kind of avoiding her in the halls. Lizzie isn’t really avoiding quite as much, but she’s not really starting conversations either. Hope hates what this whole thing is doing to their relationship. 

After a week, she decides that she’s tired of it. Tired of the avoidance and awkwardness. Tired of not having someone she was coming to know as a friend. She texts Lizzie, telling her to meet up in Hope’s room. Her roommate is off with her girlfriend, so it’s an empty place to talk. She also texts Landon the same. 

Landon gets there a little bit earlier, looking nervous as he walks through the door. “Hey, Hope,” Landon says. 

“Hey,” Hope replies with a half-forced smile. God, she hates having to be the one whos confrontational in this situation. Lizzie walks in before she can say anything else. Landon’s eyes widen, and Lizzie glares at Hope upon realizing what’s going on.

“You didn’t tell me we were doing a love triangle meeting. You said you needed help,” Lizzie says with annoyance.

“And I do,” Hope responds. “I need both of your help. I need you to help me get through this awkwardness with you. Lizzie, we fought for years. We hated each other for so long, but I don’t want to do that again. You’re my friend, and I was just realizing that when I sacrificed myself. You and Josie and Landon are why I’ve been opening myself up to new people. Because you all showed me that I can have friends. I don’t want to lose you now over a boy. No offense Landon. You’re great, but it’s not the point.”

“I don’t want to hate you again either,” Lizzie admits. “And, I mean, I don’t. It’s just weird, Hope. I love him, and I’m still pretty sure he loves you more.”

“Honestly,” Hope says with a sigh, “I think you two are good together. In a weird way, but I do. I wouldn’t have expected it in a million years, but you’re happy together. I don’t want to take that away. And I know it should be Landon’s choice, but honestly, I don’t think I want to get back together,” Hope says, turning to Landon as she says it. “You were my first real love. That’s always going to mean something, but I just don’t think it’s the same anymore. I think that maybe we’re done. I’m sorry. I just feel like our relationship was maybe meant to be temporary. You showed me that I could fall in love with someone. But I don’t think it’s going to be you forever. I think you two are good together. And if I’m wrong, if we’re meant to be, we’ll find out one day. I love you, but I think it’s turned more into friendship than romantic love.”

Landon nods, not saying anything as if he’s processing the information. He sighs. “I think you’re right,” Landon says. “I didn’t see it before, but when you said that, I couldn’t help feeling a little bit relieved. So, yeah, I think we’re done.”

“Then it’s settled,” Hope says with a sigh. “I don’t know if you two are sticking together, but we’re not. Which further explains why we have no reason to be against each other, Lizzie. You’re my friend; I love you. Can we please just be friends again?”

Lizzie doesn’t even answer at first. She just hugs Hope. Hope smiles, feeling like everything might just be okay. “Of course we can be friends again.”

“What about us?” Landon asks once Lizzie pulls away. Lizzie walks over with a smile

“Do you want to stay together?” She asks, and Hope can tell just how hopeful Lizzie is. She’s smiling, but there’s fear behind her eyes.

“Yes,” Landon says without hesitation. Lizzie smiles even bigger, and she kisses him before anyone else can talk. Hope smiles, and she’s happy to realize that it is real. She’s happy for them. Like she said, she’ll always love Landon, but it’s different now. All she wants is to be his friend and to be Lizzie’s friend. And right now, two of her best friends look so, so happy together. She can’t help the big smile that comes to her face. And she can’t wait to spend more non-awkward time with both of them. It’s been far too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or a comment if you enjoyed! (Seriously, I don't want to sound needy, but comments seriously motivate me so there's that.)


	33. Kidnapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm back again! I'm also proud of myself because it hasn't been that long this time. Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Now that Hope is back in the swing of things at school, she decides it would probably be best to talk to Taylor. She hasn't talked to her in a while. In a total bad friend move, Hope just texted Taylor about the school change instead of telling her in person. She just knew that Taylor would have questions, and lying is a whole lot easier over text. She still felt bad about it, but it was definitely easier.

Honestly, Hope is starting to think it was dumb to make human friends.She loves Taylor and Tyler, and she doesn’t plan on leaving them or anything, but it’s so hard. It’s not so bad with Tyler because he knows about everything and he’s always had this way of making her feel normal and okay. Taylor’s the hard part. Hope could tell her, but it would be far too risky. She could compel Taylor to forget if it goes badly, but Hope really doesn’t want to have to do that. Besides, it’s safer if Taylor just stays out of the supernatural world entirely. 

Even though it’s hard, Hope knows that she can’t just ditch Taylor. She’s one of her best friends, and Hope loves her. She would never do that.

Hope texts Taylor and asks her to hang out. She paints while she waits for an answer. She could never explain how happy she is now to be able to have art supplies without having to basically rob people. After an hour of painting and not getting a response, Hope starts to get worried. She knows that Taylor could just be busy. She could also be mad about Hope not telling her in person and just be ignoring her because of it. But for some reason, Hope can’t help feeling like something is wrong.

Hope texts again, asking her to please answer and just let her know she’s okay, at least. After another ten minutes of nervous waiting, Hope calls Tyler. He picks up almost immediately. “MY tribrid friend finally calls,” Tyler says jokingly. 

“Do you know where your sister is?” Hope asks, getting right to the point.

“And here I thought you were calling for me. I miss you, Marshall-Mikaelson.”

“I miss you too,” Hope says, and she really, really means it. It’s been so long. “But I’m worried. I know it’s probably nothing, but Taylor isn’t answering me.”

“I haven’t seen her in a while, but I’m sure she’s fine. She’s been a little bitter about the whole you not telling her beforehand thing.”

“Can you please check?” Hope asks. “I’m sorry that I’m being annoying, but I’m really worried. I just feel like something is wrong.”

“You could never be annoying, Mikaelson. I’ll check. But while I’m walking to her room, let’s talk. How’s the new-old school?”

“Pretty good. Just getting back into the swing of things.”

“And the boyfriend situation?””

“We broke up. I mean, like, officially. It’s-”

“Hope,” Tyler says suddenly, cutting her off. His voice gives away that he’s really scared, and it makes Hope scared too. “She’s not here. The rooms a mess, and the window is open. She doesn’t open the window, Hope. There’s a note. It says, “Dear Hope Mikaelson, I have your friend. Meet me at the abandoned building on Elm Street.” Hope, what do we do?”

“We don’t do anything,” Hope says with a sigh as she feels her heartbeat speed up with panic. She has to try to stay calm. “I’m going to get her. You’re going to come to my school and sit quietly and safely in my room.”

“She’s my sister, Hope,” Tyler says with a more serious tone than Hope has ever heard him use. “I’m coming. Besides, I know the address. You might as well bring me with you before I go on my own.”

“Tyler, please-”

“I’m not changing my mind.”

“Fine,” Hope says with a sigh. “I’ll be at your house very soon. Be ready and at the door.” She hangs up right after she says it. She leaves the school quickly and speeds to Tyler’s house. She doesn’t even think to knock. She just opens the door and walks in. Hope is walking to the door as she walks in. She doesn’t say anything. She grabs Tyler by the arm and superspeeds out of the house, heading straight to the designated warehouse. Hope throws open the door without a second thought. A tall man with dark hair is standing in the middle of the room. 

“You kidnapped my friend,” Hope says angrily, eyes turning a yellowish color as the wolf inside of her begs to pounce. She decides that she should wait to attack him until she knows exactly where Taylor is, though. She can’t see her through the doorway.

“I did. You, Hope Mikaelson, are very, very special. And don’t worry. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Just come on in,” he says. Hope knows he has to be lying, but she walks further without hesitating. Taylor is somewhere in here, hopefully, and she has to find her. It’s her fault Taylor isn’t safe. She has to fix it. “I’m a vampire, by the way. Just in case you were wondering. My name is Alex. It’s very rude to not get to know your host,” he shouts as she walks away from him. But he doesn’t say anything else as she looks around.

After a few minutes, she sees Taylor’s body lying on the floor in some room. Tyler is right behind her. He rushes over to his sister while Hope stands there in shock. 

“Wake up, Tay,” Tyler says, shaking her.

“Tyler,” Hope says, tears coming to her eyes. Tyler looks at her and she just shakes her head, not sure what to say. It’s too much. She’s lost so many people; she can’t lose Taylor too. 

“What? Hope, why are you crying?” He demands. 

“She’s not breathing,” Hope says. “I-I can’t hear her heartbeat.”

“Maybe your ears aren’t working,” Tyler protests, trying to find her pulse. 

“Tyler, I’m a vampire. I can hear a human heartbeat from miles away. I’m sorry,” she says, tears still rolling down her cheeks.

Tyler slumps down to the ground, tears coming to his eyes. He wants to scream and die at the same time, and he can’t deal with it. Hope feels like she should be doing something to help him, but she feels the same. She doesn’t even know what to do. There’s nothing she can do.

Hope is trying to figure out what to do when she hears footsteps behind her. She whirls around, seeing the man pointing a syringe towards her, clearly intending on sinking the vervain into her. Hope thinks there may be wolfsbane, too, but she isn’t sure. It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t just take the syringe. She twists his hand until it breaks as she’s filled with an immeasurable amount of rage. The man in front of her killed one of her best friends, and she won’t let him hurt her anyone else. 

The man cries out as Hope breaks his hand. In that moment, Hope enjoys his cries. All she wants is to make him suffer. A part of her understands why her father hurt so many people. She would never hurt someone who doesn’t deserve it, but she can’t wait to murder this guy. 

Hope reaches into his chest, hand wrapping around the man’s heart. Holding his heart in her hand makes her feel so powerful that she almost forgets why she’s killing him for a minute. Almost.

Right as she’s about to rip his heart out, he speaks up. “She’s not dead!” He says frantically. “I mean, she is. For now. I gave her some of my blood. She should wake up soon.”

“What?” Hope asks with a venom-laced voice. Tyler looks back at them with confusion. “You’re lying,” she says angrily. She really doesn’t know, but a part of her hopes that he is. She doesn’t want Taylor to be dead by any means. She never would in a million years. But she doubts Taylor would want to be a vampire either, and now she’s going to have to lose her all over again if Taylor decides that’s the case. She doesn’t know what to think.

“I’m not,” he says. “I figured it would bother you. I’m sorry, okay? Just please let me go,” He begs. 

Hope tightens her fist around the man’s heart. “Remember my face,” she says angrily, “because it’s going to be the last thing you ever see.” 

She rips out his heart before he can say anything. She lets it fall to the floor before rushing over to Taylor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or a comment! As for the episode from yesterday, I still haven't seen it. No spoilers please!!!


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back again! Surprisingly soon, lol. Maybe I should get an updating schedule, but I feel like I'd never stick to it. Anyways, hope you enjoy.  
Please read the notes at the end. Important question!

“What does that mean?” Tyler asks as soon as she gets over to him. “He said that he fed her his blood. What the hell does that mean?”

“If it’s true,” Hope says, and she feels a little bit of hope fill her. She doesn’t want Taylor to be a vampire; she hates the possibility that she roped another of her friends into the supernatural world, but, as she lets herself think that it might be true, she can’t help being a little bit happy. Taylor could be alive again. Sure, it would be under bad circumstances and it would suck, but she would be back. Hope wouldn’t have to spend the rest of her life missing her. “If it’s true,” she says again, “she’ll come back.”

“Back?” Tyler asks. “Like back to life? Oh my God,” he says, his gaze filling with happiness and an immeasurable amount of hope. 

“It might not be true,” Hope says. She wants it to be. She wants it to be more than anything right in this moment. But even as hope fills her, she can’t let Tyler get his hopes up. If the man was lying, he’ll be heartbroken. She will be too, but she can’t let him be hurt like that. 

“Don’t say that!” Tyler shouts. “Your name is literally Hope. Please, please just… I can’t lose her, okay. Please just believe it so I can too. It has to be true. I need it to be true. Hope, please.”

“Okay,” Hope says with a nod. All she can do is wish with every fiber of her being it’s true. What Tyler needs right now is her support. Even as she feels like breaking down, she’s going to make sure he’s okay. He doesn’t deserve this. But still, she can’t hide the truth. “But Ty, even if she does wake up, she won’t be human. She’ll be a vampire.”

“She’ll be alive, Hope,” Tyler says. “That’s all that matters. She can have my blood for all I fucking care. I just can’t have her dead.”

“We should get her out of here,” Hope says. “She’ll be starving when she wakes up. I know you’re offering or whatever, but it would really be better to start her off on blood bags. The hunger when you first turn… it’s unbearable. She could suck you dry without even realizing it. I know she’s your sister, and I know she would never hurt anyone intentionally, but vampires will always be a predatory species by nature. We just need to get her to my school. You shouldn’t… you shouldn’t be there when she wakes up, Tyler.”

“Hope, she’s my sister.”

“Tyler,” Hope says harshly. “I can hear your heartbeat from miles away. If I don’t feed, it’s a constant urge to sink my fangs into any human nearby. When you first turn, it’s much worse. And Taylor won’t even know what’s happening. She will attack without even knowing what she’s doing. She won’t know how to resist because she won’t even know what’s going on. I need to know that you’re safe. Please, Tyler. Just go home. I’ll call if she wakes up.”

Tyler walks over to her, looking determined to argue. Hope is expecting him to keep fighting her over this, but he stops when he’s standing incredibly close to her. He grabs her chin, bringing her face closer to his. Hope’s heartbeat speeds up. She leans in more, pressing her lips to his. The kiss only last a few seconds, but it feels better than anything Hope has ever felt before. When they pull apart, she has the biggest smile on her face. 

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time,” Tyler says with a big smile. “For the record, though, you’re not allowed to say if. It’s when she wakes up. I know you’ll take care of her, Hope. I appreciate it, too. I’ll listen to you. But you better call me the second she wakes up. Promise me.”

“I promise,” Hope says with a smile. “You will know as soon as I do. I’ll get her fed, and you can come see her. And maybe we can kiss again when everything’s okay.”

“I certainly hope so, Hope,” Tyler says with a smile. “I’ll go now. As soon as she wakes up. Don’t forget.”

With those words, Tyler walks out. Hope picks up Taylor and super speeds her to the Salvatore School. Even in this awful situation, she can’t stop smiling the whole way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think! Also, important question, would any of you be interested in a Hosie au? Not in this story of course, but if I was to start a Hosie au. It wouldn't be super soon, but I do have an idea and want to know if anyone is interested.
> 
> Now, about the newest episode.  
I love Lizzie in this episode, trying to get Josie and Hope to get along again. Simulandon is a whole mood, honestly. Everyone loves hope mikaelson. Honestly, I don't remember everything about the episode at the minute. I love the Hope and Alaric hug. I didn't really like the Clarke story line in this episode all that much. I don't hate it; it's just that I really liked Hope and Clarke's dynamic while they were in malivore and it was just gone in this episode. I'm honestly glad that Landon left. I don't have anything against him, but I'm not really a fan of all the love triangle stuff. The hosie scene at the end was so beautiful and I love it so much. They held hands! I really, really want Hosie in the show. Like please. "I even miss Lizzie being mean to me." I would also take Hizzie. Honestly just put Hope with a girl. Hosie is cute, Hizzie is cute, Haya is cute. Why does Hope look cute with every single girl? I could even see her with Penelope or something honestly. I love Landon and Rafael's relationship. Also I feel bad for Josie in this episode with her being tricked by clarke. I am wondering where her dark magic story line is going to go from here.
> 
> Another thing! I'm aromantic and asexual so writing romance isn't really my thing. It would be really helpful if you let me know if I'm doing okay. If you don't believe asexuality and aromanticism exist, don't say anything and kindly leave please. Not dealing with any haters. Only asking for critism on my writing, please and thank you.


	35. What's Next?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So as an apology for making you guys wait so long, here's an extra long chapter! Hope you enjoy! Also, if any of you want to contact me on tumblr, my url is legacies-stuff  
I also have mood boards and other things on there if you want to check it out. Feel free to send me ask or whatever.

Hope brings Taylor to her dorm room immediately. Arya is lying on her bed, staring at her phone. She looks up immediately at hearing Hope come in. Her eyes widen when she sees Hope laying Taylor’s dead body down on the bed. 

“Is she… dead?” Arya asks, getting up and walking over to the bed. 

“Yes,” Hope says with a sigh. “For now, at least. I’m somewhat sure that she’s going to come back to life as a vampire.”

“Um, okay,” Arya says. “Who is she?”

“My best friend,” Hope says. “Or one of them. Anyway, I’m going to go grab a couple of blood bags for when she wakes up.”

“Cool. Hope everything turns out well. I’m on my way to meet my girlfriend. You don't need me or anything, right?"

"Nope," Hope says. "Got it under control."

“Okay. Good luck with the new vamp.”

“Thanks,” Hope says as Arya walks out. She sighs once Arya leaves. Hope gets up and goes to the room with the blood, grabbing four bags. Two for each of them. It’s been a long day. 

When she’s walking back to her room, though, she sees Taylor standing in the hall. She another girl pinned to the wall, fangs sujk into the girl’s neck. The girl is screaming, and Hope has no doubt that more people will be here soon. 

“Taylor!” Hope shouts, trying to get her friend’s attention. Taylor doesn’t falter. She runs over and wrestles Taylor off of the girl. Taylor tries to fight, but after a moment, she seems to realize what’s going on a little bit. 

“Hope? “Taylor asks. 

“Give me just a minute, okay?” Hope asks. Taylor nods, looking lost. Hope speeds over to the other girl, biting her wrist and making the girl drink it. She lost way more blood than what would be even remotely acceptable. Hope isn’t sure what the girl is. Werewolf? Witch? It doesn’t really matter. Hope kind of hopes that she isn’t a werewolf, though. Or at least hopes she doesn’t die with Hope’s blood in her system. The last thing Hope needs it to make more hybrids by accident.

After healing the girl, Hope explains the situation to her. “She’s new,” Hope says. “She doesn’t even realize what she’s doing. Can you please let it go?”

“Control your friend,” the girl says angrily, holding her hand to her neck. “This school is supposed to be safe. My parents sent me here for a reason. I don’t need you two making it a dangerous place. If she comes near me again, I won’t hesitate to attack first.”

“Got it,” Hope says with a sigh. She can’t expect much more. Taylor did attack the poor girl; Hope can’t be mad at her for being defensive. The girl walks away with an eye roll. Hope looks back to where Taylor was, but she’s not there anymore.

“Taylor?!” Hope calls out, looking around. She doesn’t see her anywhere nearby, and she’s getting increasingly nervous. Taylor did get some blood from the other girl, but she’s probably still hungry. She doesn’t even understand what’s going on. There’s a good chance that Taylor will just attack another random person without even realizing she’s doing it. Hope needs to find her really soon.

She pulls out her phone as she walks around. She dials Josie’s number. Josie answers pretty much immediately. “Hope?” She asks.

“Hey, Josie. I need help. Remember Taylor? Well, she’s a vampire now. She has no idea what’s going on, and I have no idea where she is. She attacked a student. The girl is fine, but I really need to find her. Can you look around the school for me? I want to go into town and make sure she isn’t attacking any of the human locals.”

“Of course,” Josie says, and Hope can hear her footsteps as she gets up. “How the hell did Taylor get turned into a vampire, though?”

“Long story,” Hope says with a sigh. “Shortened version: people still want to hurt me by attacking my friends. I’m going to hang up now so that I can listen for her better.”

“Okay. Call me if you find her.”

“Ditto,” Hope says before hanging up. She speeds out of the building. She runs around town, trying to find her while still staying out of the view of everyone else. She finds Taylor in the woods she normally runs around in when she turns. She’s sitting on the grass, head in her hands. At a second glance, Hope sees a dead body lying on the ground near her, bite marks on his neck. Hope sighs. This is the last thing she wanted. A guy is dead, and she knows that Taylor will never forgive herself.

“Tay?” She asks because she has to start somewhere. She has to say something. Taylor lifts her head, looking at her friend.

“Hope,” She cries out, standing up and running over to hug her. When she pulls away, she looks into Hope’s eyes. “What the hell is wrong with me? I… I drank his blood. I don’t know why. I just did it, and I want more. I just killed a guy, Hope. What-”

“Breathe,” Hope says, putting a hand on Taylor’s shoulder. “I will explain everything, I promise. But first, you need to calm down. Let’s go back to my school. It’s safer there.” 

“I didn’t think monsters were real,” Taylor says, not calming down even a little bit. “But now, all I want is more blood. I ran here, faster than anyone can run. Am I a vampire?” She asks, looking horrified.

“Yes,” Hope says with a sigh. “You’re a vampire.”

“I don’t want to be a vampire!” Taylor argues. “I get sad when I kill a fly, Hope. I just killed someone. How do I live with that?”

“Taylor, please. Just come with me to my school. We can talk there. It’s safer.”

“For who? Because no one is safe if I’m around. I’m a freaking vampire!”

“So am I,” Hope says softly, looking into her friend’s eyes. “Being a vampire doesn’t mean you have to kill people, Taylor. It’ll be okay. Come on, please.”

“You’re a vampire?” Taylor asks. “You never told me that,” she looks a little betrayed.

“I’m a lot of things,” Hope says with a sigh. “But most importantly, I’m your friend. I’m your friend, and I love you. Now, please. Come back to the school with me.”

“We need to call his family,” Taylor says, looking back at the man. “They need to know. And we can’t just leave him here.”

“We will do all of that later,” Hope tells her, putting her hands on Taylor’s shoulders, trying to reassure her. Hope hates that she doesn’t know exactly what to do. She’s been through so much; you would think she would know what to say to someone else. But she doesn’t, and she still feels so helpless. “Come back?”

“Okay,” Taylor says, taking a deep breath. “Wait. Is that girl okay? The one I attacked?”

“She’s fine,” Hope says. “I promise. We’ll talk about it when we get to the school. Follow me.”

Hope walks away, and Taylor follows her out of the woods. Hope thinks of super speeding, but Taylor doesn’t know the way. After about a minute of being around people, Hope turns around to check on Taylor just to see her gone again. After looking around for a minute, Hope runs back to the woods. She finds Taylor with her fangs sunk into another human’s neck. 

“Let go of her,” Hope says, walking over. Just like before, Taylor doesn’t budge. She doesn’t even seem to register that Hope’s talking. Hope puts a hand on her shoulder, trying to snap her out of it. Taylor still doesn’t move. Hope sees the human woman starting to pass out, so she yanks Taylor off of her. Taylor crashes against a nearby tree, passing out on impact. Hope walks over to the lady. 

“Forget everything that happened just now. Forget my face and my friend’s face. Go home.”

The woman leaves. Hope takes a deep breath before walking over to her friend. She didn’t really mean for Taylor to get hurt, but she had to save the girl. Taylor doesn’t need more to regret and feel guilty for. Besides, it’ll be easier to get her back this way anyway. Hope doesn’t know why she keeps running away, but at least now she can’t. It’s not great, but it’s what she’s stuck with now. 

Hope super speeds back to the school with Taylor in her arms. When she gets to her room, she lays Taylor down on her bed again. Arya isn’t back yet, so that’s good. She would hate more explanations. It’s at that moment that she remembers Josie. She was supposed to call her when she found Taylor. There was just so much going on, and she completely forgot. She dials Josie’s number as she closes the door. Josie answers immediately.

“Did you find her?” Josie asks, voice urgent and worried.

“Yes. She’s safe, Jo. Well, sort of. It’s… complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“Do you know what a ripper is?” Hope asks, taking a deep breath as she looks at her best friend’s unconscious body. 

“Not really.” 

“A ripper is basically a vampire that lives only for the taste of blood. It’s all they can think about. They’ll drink until they kill someone without even thinking about it, even if they normally care a lot about people and would never do it by choice. Taylor killed someone today. She almost killed two more people. The Taylor I know couldn’t hurt a fly. And she definitely had enough blood after the first person she attacked. Tyler did tell me once that Taylor wasn’t good at resisting things she wants. He was talking about normal foods when she was a diet, but I think the point applies here. I don’t know how to make her stop when she doesn’t even get that she’s doing it.”

“My god,” Josie says in shock. “I can call my mom, see if she knows what to do.”

“What if they lock her up?” Hope asks worriedly. It’s her fault that Taylor is like this, and she can’t live with herself if she ruined Taylor’s life. Taylor doesn’t deserve to be locked up for what isn’t her fault. Hope can’t let that happen. 

“My mom wouldn’t do that,” Josie says. “She’s a vampire too, remember? She knows how to fight whatever temptations you guys feel.”

“Okay,” Hope says with a sigh, knowing that Josie is probably right. From the times that Hope has seen Caroline, she seems very nice. “Call her if you think it’s for the best. I gotta go. Taylor’s brother is still waiting for me to call him.”

“Oh yeah,” Josie says. “I forgot she had a brother.”

“I think…” Hope trails off. She knows it’s not the right moment. There’s too much going on, and it’s definitely not the most important thing in the world right now. But she wants to tell one of her friends, and it can’t be Taylor. Especially not any time soon. “I think we might be dating.”

“Taylor or her brother?” 

“Well, Taylor is cute,” Hope says with a laugh. “But no. It’s Tyler. We kissed. Sucky situation, but it was amazing.”

“Oh my god. I am so happy for you! You better update me if anything else happens immediately,” Josie says, but it feels like the enthusiasm isn’t really there. Hope assumes it’s because of what’s going on with Taylor, so she doesn’t worry about it. “Now, go call your boyfriend.”

“Okay,” Hope says with a smile. “Bye.”

Hope hangs up after Josie says goodbye. Hope looks at Taylor, still unconscious. She sighs, dialing Tyler’s number as she walks out the door. Taylor should be out for a little while longer, and it would be best to have quite a bit of blood when she wakes. Tyler answers on the first ring.

“Hope!” He says. “Is she okay? Is she alive? What’s going on?”

“She’s alive, Tyler,” Hope says, and she can hear his heavy sigh of relief and happiness at knowing that his sister is alive. “It’s a little complicated, though. Taylor being a vampire, I would know how to deal with. But she isn’t just a vampire. She’s a ripper. A vampire who will feed until they kill someone without even realizing it at times. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, Ty, but she’s already killed someone. I had to throw her against a tree to keep her from killing another person. And she regrets it after, but she does it again. She doesn’t realize she’s doing it. Taylor wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. We both know that. But the bloodlust is strong, even for normal vampires. I’m not a ripper. I don’t know how to handle this.”

“Just bring her home, Hope. We’ll stock some blood bags in a mini fridge. She’ll feel better in her own house.”

“Tyler, if she leaves this room, she will kill someone. If she gets near you, it may be you. I can’t take that chance, okay? I’ve lost too many people, and I won’t lose you. I don’t know what to do, but there are vampires that do. It’ll be okay. But you can’t see her for a while.”

“What do you think you’re gonna do?” Tyler asks, sounding sad and resigned.

“We’ll probably have to lock her up,” Hope admits. She knows he’ll hate it, but she can’t lie about it. She hates it too, but she doesn’t know what else she’s supposed to do. She doesn’t think there’s any solution to this that doesn’t involve Taylor being miserable, and she hates it so much. 

“I’m coming to see her,” Tyler says. “Do what you have to, but I have to see her first. She needs me.”

“Tyler-”

“It’s not up for debate, Hope,” Tyler says, and Hope can hear his footsteps on the other end of the line. “I’m leaving now. I’ll be there soon.” 

“Tyler, please, just stay safe at your house,” Hope begs. 

“She won’t hurt me, Hope. She would never do that.”

“She doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Hope argues.

“She’s my twin,” Tyler argues back. “If anyone can bring her back from whatever this is, it’s me. We may not seem close, but we care about each other more than anyone ever could, Hope. I’m coming, and I’m sorry if that upsets you, but I’m coming whether you like it or not.”

“Okay,” Hope says with a deep sigh before hanging up. She wants to argue more, but she knows better. He’s coming whether she likes it or not, and Hope needs to accept it. She understands, too, in her own way. She’s fought like hell for her family. She can’t stop Tyler from doing the same just because he’s worried. 

When he shows up, Hope is waiting outside of her bedroom door. 

"Where is she?" Tyler asks as he urgently walks up to where Hope is standing. 

"She's in my room," Hope says. "I know you're not going to listen to me, so I know you're going to go in one way or another unless I forcibly stop you. And I won't do that, so I'm kind of stuck. But you do need to be careful. I know that she's your sister, but right now, her love for you is not her focus. The only thing she cares about is blood, and you're a human full of it. Vampires will always be a predatory species, Ty. Try to remember that."

"My sister is a vampire now, Hope. My hopefully-future-girlfriend is part vampire. Predatory or not, I'm not going anywhere. You're just stuck with me."

"Your hopefully future what now?" Hope asks, eyebrows raised and voice hopeful.

"We'll talk about it later," Tyler says. "Bring me to my sister, please."

"Follow me," Hope says with a smile. She walks the few steps it takes to get to her room. She opens the door. They both walk in to see Taylor's still unconscious body.

"Is she alright?" Tyler asks.

"I just had to knock her out," Hope says with a sigh. "She'll be awake soon."

"Like how soon?" Tyler asks. 

"If I had to guess, I'd say ten minutes. But I’m not even a little bit sure, honestly.”

“Okay,” Tyler sighs, pacing around while they wait. Hope invites him to sit down, but he just keeps pacing away. After about five minutes, Taylor sits up. She looks around, confused about what’s going on. As soon as she registers the human in the room, she races over to him before Hope even notices she’s doing it. She sinks her fangs into his neck, and Hope runs over. Before Hope can reach her, though, Taylor pulls back, looking to be in pain. After a moment, though, she lunges at him again. Hope wrestles her off of him, snapping Taylor’s neck in the process. She has to admit that Tyler’s still-bloody neck is a little bit tempting. But what’s more important is the terrified look on his face. 

“She’ll come back. She’s a vampire now. You still take vervain, right?” 

“Of course,” Tyler says, reaching up to his neck. “Why?”

“Because ingesting vervain or even just touching it burns really bad for a vampire. The fact that it hurt her and she kept trying to drink more shows that she really doesn’t know how to stop. She doesn’t care if she’s in pain or if she’s hurting someone she cares about. All she cares about is getting more blood.”

“So what do we do?” Tyler asks, looking at his sister. “Hope, I wanted to help her. But now, I think you’re right. She’s not safe to be around.”

“She just needs to learn to deal with it or something,” Hope says, shaking her head. “I’ll lock her up in one of the werewolf transitional cellars until I can figure out what to do next. She’ll be fine, I promise.”

“What about the dead guy she killed?”

“I’ve killed people too, Tyler. That doesn’t make me evil.”

“Do you want to drink my blood too?” Tyler asks, eyebrows raised, voice afraid.

“Of course I do,” Hope answers without hesitation. If Tyler wants to be afraid of her, she can’t stop him. But she won’t lie. “But I know how to control it, and I can teach Taylor, too. Why don’t you drink my blood? It’ll heal within minutes with my blood in your system. Just make sure not to die soon.”

Tyler nods slowly, and Hope bites her own wrist. She brings it to Tyler’s mouth, and he lets the blood flow into his mouth. After a moment, Hope pulls her hand away. She looks into Tyler’s eyes, putting a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. 

“Can I kiss you again?” Tyler asks, staring into Hope’s eyes.

“Technically, I’m the one who leaned in the rest of the way last time. Therefore, I kissed you,” Hope says teasingly, leaning in more.

“Technically, I don’t really care,” Tyler says, surging forward and pressing his lips against Hope’s. It lasts a little longer this time. Tyler tangles his hands in Hope’s hair as Hope grabs deepens the kiss. After a few more seconds, they pull apart. Tyler catches up on breath as Hope sits down on her bed, still high on the happiness of the kiss.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend?” Tyler asks before Hope really has a chance to think. Hope’s smile widens. 

“More than I could ever tell you,” Hope says with a happy laugh. 

“Then I would love to be your boyfriend, Hope Mikaelson,” Tyler says before glancing over at Taylor. “We shouldn’t tell her, though. At least not yet. She’s already tempted to rip my head off. I don’t want to know what would happen if she found out I was dating her friend.”

“Probably best to wait,” Hope agrees. 

“Wait for what?” A voice asks, and Hope looks over to see Lizzie at the door. “By the way, Josie said mom can’t come. But since I’m mean and don’t know this girl, my mom thinks I’m best for the hard job. So I guess I’ve got to babysit the baby vamp. It kind of sucks, though. I like being mean to people, but I did have plans. Either way, I told mom I would handle it. Hope, can you pick up the dead girl? We need to bring her to the werewolf jail cells?”

“They’re not jail cells,” Hope argues.

“Landon would beg to differ. Call it what you want. I’m just glad I’m not a werewolf. Anyway, let’s go.”

“How is Landon?” Hope asks, because whether they’re together or not, she’s always going to care about him. “How are you guys doing?” 

“Is it actually okay to talk to you about this? Seems like it would be an awkward subject.”

“One-hundred percent fine,” Hope says truthfully. ‘Landon and I are done. It was mutual. Besides, I have a new boyfriend,” she adds, looking at Tyler.

“So Landon is your old boyfriend?” Tyler asks. “And he’s dating your friend who apparently likes being mean?”

“They started dating when no one knew I existed,” Hope explains. “It was all awkward when I came back here, but we really are done now. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not worried,” Tyler says with a smile. He turns to Lizzie. “You’re not going to actually hurt my sister, are you?” 

Lizzie shrugs. “I don’t know. My mom will be telling me what to do. But she’s nicer than me, so maybe not. Either way, you probably should leave.”

“I’m not leaving her alone,” Tyler argues. Hope puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Tyler, listen to me. Even if no one does anything to hurt her, there is no way this goes without her being in pain. We’re probably going to have to dry her out and not let her have any blood. It’s going to be painful. She’s going to beg and cry and we just have to ignore it. I’m not even sure I can do it, and I know you can’t. Your sympathy is going to get you killed if you’re not careful.”

“Fine,” Tyler says with a sigh. “But you better call me constantly with updates. And in exchange for listening to you, you are going on a date with me whenever she’s better. We need some couple time now that we’re a couple.”

“I have no objections to that,” Hope says with a smile. “We can plan it all out later. And I promise I will call you as soon as I find out something new.”

“Deal. Please make sure she’s okay, though,” Tyler says before leaving. Hope sighs, looking over at Taylor. She looks back to Lizzie.

“Ready to dry out the baby vamp?” Lizzie asks, eyebrows raised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed!!! Let me know what you think down in the comment section!  
I did watch the newest episode but I forgot a lot of it so I'll post my thoughts on it in the next chapter after I rewatch it. Anyway, thanks for everything! If I don't get a new chapter out before Christmas, Merry Christmas.  
(I might try to do a christmas chapter, though, if anyone is interested. There's no real time frame in this story, so it wouldn't mess with consistency too much. What do you guys think? It would have to be after christmas because I'd have to write something else to get there, but if you guys are interested???)


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm so sorry it's been so long. I just haven't been feeling motivated at all, and it's been hard lately. But here's a chapter for you guys, and I hope you enjoy it. Honestly, I think the endings a little cheesy but I'm exhausted and I don't really want to think of anything else so... yeah. Also, this will probably be my last update of 2019!!

As it turns out, drying out one of her best friends isn’t the easiest for Hope. Not that she really ever thought it would be. 

Hope is there when Taylor wakes up later that day. She convinced Lizzie to give her some time to talk to her friend without an audience. “Hope?” she asks as she sits up, looking around. “Why am I in a jail cell?”

“Uh, werewolf transitional cellar,” Hope corrects. 

“Werewolves are real, too?” Taylor asks with shock. 

“I’m part werewolf, actually,” Hope admits.

“How many secrets do you have?”

“I’m also part witch,” Hope adds. She doubts that’ll help very much with how overwhelmed Taylor is with all the new information, but it’s best to get it out now.

“You kept all of that from me?” Taylor asks, sounding betrayed. “I didn’t keep anything from you, Hope. Given I don’t really have any big secrets, but still. Why wouldn’t you tell me? Did you not trust me?”

“Taylor, people who get involved in my life get hurt. You being my friend at all put you in danger. It’s the reason you’re a vampire now. There was a possibility that you knowing could’ve put you in even more danger.”

“Does Tyler know?” Taylor asks, not quite looking at Hope. She’s clearly hoping that the answers no. She doesn’t want for Hope to have told Tyler first. Hope looks down. “So he does,” Taylor says. “You know what, Hope? You’re right. Being your friend put me in danger. So why the hell did you bother hanging out with me?”

“Because you’re Taylor,” Hope says desperately. “You’re nice and a good friend. I hid from having friends for the sake of protecting them for a long time, Taylor. I didn’t want to hide from it anymore.”

“Yeah?” Taylor asks, and there’s cruelty in her gaze. “Well maybe you should’ve. Maybe then I wouldn’t have to live with this bloodlust and the knowledge that I killed somebody. Can you please just let me out of this stupid werewolf jail and leave me alone?”

“I can’t,” Hope says, looking away. She wants to argue with Taylor, to tell her that she never wanted Taylor to get hurt or turned or anything. And it’s true, but Taylor isn’t really wrong either. No matter how much it hurts, nothing Taylor said is really arguable other than her asking to be let out.

“What do you mean you can’t?” Taylor asks. “Hope, I’m hungry.”

“And knowing that you can’t stop when you feed isn’t something that’s making you worried about what’ll happen when you try again?” Hope asks, eyebrows raised.

“I can control it,” Taylor says, but even she doesn’t seem to believe it. Besides, Hope knows better.

“No, Taylor, I don’t think you can. You killed someone, and you nearly killed two more people. You would have if I hadn’t stopped you because you don’t know how to stop. There… There are certain kinds of vampires called rippers. It means they will literally feed until the person's head comes off. Basically, they’ll kill anyone they sink their fangs into. And I hate it, but I’m pretty sure you’re one of them. We have to dry you out. That means you have to stay here for a while. With no blood.”

“Blood is all I can think about, Hope. You can’t ruin my life by getting me turned into a vampire and then not let me drink any blood when I’m dying of thirst.”

“You won’t die,” Hope assures her. “I would never let you die. At worst, you’ll desicate, but I don't think it’ll get that far. You’ll be okay. According to a witch friend of mine, she’s going to try to give you animal blood after the human blood gets out of your system.”

“Okay, I don’t know that much about vampirism. But movies and books would imply human blood is what vampires are supposed to drink.”

“You’ll be weaker. Not as strong or fast as other vampires. But if it’s either that or killing people, isn’t the choice kind of obvious?”

“I guess,” Taylor says with a sigh. “Can you leave me alone now? I don’t want to talk any more.”

“Having friends going through this is going to help, Taylor.”

“According to what you yourself pretty much said, having you as a friend is the reason I’m going through this at all. So please, Hope, just leave me alone.”

“Fine,” Hope says with a sigh, walking away without another word. She can’t stop Taylor from being mad at her, no matter how much it hurts.

The next day, Tyler calls Hope early in the morning. Hope’s sleeping when her ringtone wakes her up. 

“Tyler, it’s 5am, and it is a Saturday. I’m sleeping,” Hope groans as she sits up.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I told my dad Taylor was staying at a friend’s last night, and I convinced him not to call her. I don’t want to keep lying to him. How long is this going to take? I don’t know how many excuses I can come up with.”

“Dude, why are you even awake right now?” Hope asks, mind still focused on just how early it is. “It’ll probably be a couple of days at least.”

“I’m awake because I haven’t been able to sleep. I mean, I did sleep some but I just keep waking up. I was waiting to call you until a semi-decent time. Can you compel my dad?”

“I thought you were super against compulsion,” Hope points out, remembering how upset he was about Rebekah compelling him and how worried he was about the possibility of it ever happening again. 

“I am,” Tyler says. “But I’m stressed enough right now, thinking about my twin sister being in pain. The last thing I need right now is to have to worry about someone else, too. And I don’t want him to be worried either, you know? And I feel like a hypocrite because I really do believe everyone deserves their own choice, It’s just too much right now, Hope, and-” 

“I’ll do it,” Hope says, cutting off his ranting. “But does it have to be right now? It’s so early.”

“I was kind of hoping you would come now. It’s just that he's going to leave for work in an hour,” Tyler says. “And I really, really want to see you. I’m not good at processing worry on my own. I talk it out to Taylor or the two of us just sit together and watch tv or something, but Taylor’s not here.”

“I’m coming,” Hope says, trying to keep the slight annoyance out of her voice. It’s not so much that she’s annoyed at him. She loves seeing him, and she knows he can’t help that he’s upset. It’s more that she’s annoyed about the whole situation. “I’ll be there soon.”

“Thank you, Hope,” Tyler says before hanging up. 

When Hope gets to Tyler’s house, it’s actually his dad that opens the door. That’s not really a problem considering the main reason she’s here, but it is weird. Their dad works so much that she’s literally never seen him before in all of her visits to their house.

“Who are you?” The man asks. 

“I’m Hope. Friend of Tyler’s,” she says before looking directly into your eyes. “Don’t worry about me, and don’t worry about your daughter. She’s perfectly fine. She’s staying with a friend for a while, and she won’t be calling or answering her phone at all. Just know that your daughter is fine and you have nothing to worry about or ask questions about. Now, go finish doing whatever it is you need to do and go on about your day.”

“I have nothing to worry about or ask questions about,” the man repeats. “I’m going to go finish getting ready for work. Nice to meet you, Hope.” 

Hope looks away, feeling a little guilty. She knows that Tyler asked her to and that it’s really for the best, but she’s always going to feel bad about messing with people’s free will. She walks to where she knows Tyler’s room to be, and she finds him on his bed. He’s sitting up and watching Scooby Doo, but he doesn’t seem all that focused on it at all. He looks up at her as soon as she walks in. He walks over to her without hesitation, pulling her into a hug that she’s happy to return. 

“You know, it’s so clear just how short you are when we hug,” Tyler points out.

“I’m pretty much the strongest being in existence,” Hope points out.

“You’re still tiny,” Tyler says with a smile. Then he gets a serious look on his face, seeming to remember the situation. “Thanks for coming.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Hope asks.

“About my newly-fanged sister who is sitting in a jail cell suffering because she killed someone and will kill more if she isn’t forced not to drink human blood?” Tyler asks rhetorically. “Honestly, not really. Can you just… sit with me. Stay for a little while?”

“Of course,” Hope says without hesitation. She may be exhausted both of this situation and literally, but she’ll never be tired of spending time with him. Besides, if what he needs it just to sit with someone, she can do that. 

After a while, they end up laying down and passing out while watching Scooby Doo, Tyler’s arms wrapped around Hope. They miss any plans they had for the day, but neither of them are complaining about it when they wake up. There’s a lot to do and a harsh storm to face, but being in each other’s arms makes it all okay for just a moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a like or a comment so that I might actually get some motivation! I really hope you enjoyed my last update of this decade! Thank you all for sticking with me and for being so, so amazing. Love all of you and Merry late Christmas and Happy early New Years


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry it's been a little while! Hopefully it'll stop taking me two weeks to update. Anyway, hope you enjoy!
> 
> (For the record, I wrote pretty much all of this at school in size 2 font so no one around me could see so if there are typos, and I did check but might've missed some, I'm sorry.)

Hope doesn’t go back to the werewolf cellar where Taylor is again, knowing that she’s upset with her. She wants to see her and do anything that she possibly can to help her through this, but she can’t make Taylor feel better if seeing Hope just makes Taylor mad. 

At first, Taylor’s pretty quiet, but it doesn’t last song. Hope may not go all the way back to the cellar, but she does go close enough to hear a few times. Thank God for super hearing that she can stay far enough away that Taylor doesn’t even see her. She can hear Taylor begging Lizzie to give her blood. Not to mention when Lizzie tells her that Taylor lunged at her and tried to drink her blood. It was unsuccessful, of course, but the fact that Taylor even tried makes Hope feel terrible. She’s starving and miserable to the point of attacking more people, and Hope can’t and would never want to imagine how that feels. It makes Hope feel like garbage for not being able to do anything about it.

After a couple of days, though, Lizzie walks into Hope’s room looking annoyed. “Your friend is so damn annoying,” Lizzie says with a sigh. “I was supposed to be going on a date with this girl named Emily tonight, but-”

“Wait,” Hope cuts her off. “Emily? What happened to Landon?”

“Eh,” Lizzie says with a shrug. “Died out. Broke up. He’s probably crying in his dorm room. So not the point. Back to my date, Emily’s so hot. She’s new at the school. Tonight was supposed to be our first date, but your friend needs someone to watch her, apparently.”

“Sorry. I can take care of it if you want,” Hope offers because Lizzie really doesn’t deserve to miss out on her life because of all of this. She really doesn’t know if she could handle being in control of all of this, but Lizzie shouldn’t have to be either, so she’d feel bad if she didn’t at least offer. She’s already mentally preparing for having to deal with it.

“I got it,” Lizzie says. “Already cancelled, anyway. What about you? Dating anyone?”

“Yeah, actually,” Hope says, a smile coming to her face. “Her brother actually. Tyler.”

“Taylor and Tyler?” Lizzie asks, eyebrows raised in that judgy way. “Inventive parents.”

“Yeah,” Hope laughs. She loves them both, and she has nothing against their parents, but she can’t really argue with Lizzie on it. “He’s really cool, though. Knows about everything, met the crazy family I still have, stuck around. I might kinda be in love with him, honestly.”

“Ooh, that’s big,” Lizzie says with a smile, voice raising in excitement. “Told him yet?” 

“No,” Hope says. “It’s kinda new.”

“You should tell him. Pretty much every person at this school has had a crush on you at least for a little while. I doubt the guy you fell in love with doesn’t love you too. Anyway, we got super off topic. Your annoying friend asked me if I could come get you.”

“Last time I saw her, she told me I should’ve never became friends with her.”

“I started her on the animal blood, and she’s seemed less irrationally hungry, so… maybe she came around?”

“Okay,” Hope says with a hopeful smile. 

“While you go talk to her, I’m gonna go talk to my dad. I need to find out if he and my mom have figured anything out about this whole merge business.”

“Let me know how that goes,” Hope says as Lizzie walks out. She takes a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever may happen when she walks in there.. After that, she walks out and heads to Taylor’s current cell. 

“Hi,” Hope says as she gets into seeing range of Taylor. “You wanted to see me?”

“I’m sorry,’ Taylor says before she can say anything else. ‘I always want to be your friend, and I feel so bad that I said anything to the contrary. You didn’t know this was going to happen to me, and you had no way to stop it. I shouldn’t have blamed you.”

“I mean, if you didn’t know me-”

“Don’t blame yourself,” Taylor says, stopping her. “I don’t blame you. Not now that I can think semi rationally. Please, don’t beat yourself up over something you never knew would happen in the first place.”

“Okay,” Hope says. She knows she’s not going to stop feeling terrible about it just like that, but it makes her feel a little bit better that Taylor doesn’t blame her now.

“Lizzie says I’ll probably be able to leave next week. Honestly, I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I’m not sure I trust myself to be around all those people. Now that I can think, pretty much all I can think about is that person that I killed. Did he have a family? Kids? Are there people waiting for him at home that he’s never going to come back to? I… I hate myself. And I hate myself even more because the part of my brain that’s not thinking about that is just thinking about blood. I’m a monster.”

“So am I,” Hope says. “The werewolf curse lies dormant until the carrier takes a human life, Taylor. I didn’t mean to, but i did kill someone. And you were out of it when you did that. You had just been yanked into a supernatural world you previously knew nothing about, and you didn’t know how to restrain yourself. But when yu get out of here, you’ll stay on the animal blood..You’ll be okay.”

“What if I hurt my dad? God, Hope, what if I hurt my brother?” Taylor asks, looking terrified. “He’s going to hate me for everything I did.”

“He doesn’t hate you, Taylor. He hasn’t been able to sleep because he’s so worried about you. He just keeps asking me when you’ll be able to come home. He could never hate you, Taylor.”

“What about my dad? I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know anything about any of this. He must be worried about me.”

“He’s not because he believes you’re okay. And you will be.”

“He doesn’t let either of us even stay at a friend’s house for more than two days. How could he not be worried?”

“There are a lot of parts to being a vampire. One of them is being able to compel people. If you look into someone’s eyes and tell them to do or believe something, they do it or believe it. Tyler asks me to compel your dad not to worry.”

“So drinking blood and taking away people’s free will? Sounds like being a vampire is filled with being terrible.”

Hope can’t help flinching at Taylor’s comment. She knows that Taylor apologized, but something about this still fels like they’re on thin ice, and it is something Hope did that Taylor is talking about being terrible. 

“Sorry,” Taylor says, noticing Hope’s reaction. “You dic the right thing. I’m just feeling a bit cynical is all.”

“Understandable,” Hope says with a laugh. 

“It’s our birthday in two days,” Taylor says absentmindedly. “I don’t even like big parties, but it just sucks that I’m going to be sitting in a cell on my birthday.”

“I don’t think you ever told me your birthday,” Hope points out because she really doesn’t know what else to say. The fact that Taylor is going to spend her birthday in a cell just adds to the suckage of this whole situation. She does wonder why Tyler didn’t tell her either, though. As if reading her mind, Taylor actually brings it up. “Tyler’s the big party guy. We’ve had every party together since we were babies. Can you do something for me? Just promise me that he has a good birthday?”

“I promise.”

“I’m tired. I think I'm just going to go to sleep, if that’s okay with you. It’s been a long couple of days.”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll come back to see you tomorrow, okay?”

Taylor hums in agreement as she tries to find a way to get situated in the cell. Lizzie had the decency to give her a pillow and a blanket, so that’s nice, but Hope still hates seeing her so uncomfortable. She can’t wait for when Taylor will be able to go back to her own bed. She leaves, dialing Tyler’s number as she does, ready to tell him about Taylor’s progress.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Please like or leave a comment!


	38. Birthday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while! Also, fair warning, I'm not sure how much longer this story will go on. Definitely a few more chapters, but I'm not entirely sure it'll go much farther than that. Not sure; I could change my mind, but I'm just kind of losing inspiration. I have a few things I still want to do with it, but I don't know how many more chapters that'll take up. We'll see, and I'll be sure to keep you updated if I figure out anymore. Hope you enjoy!

"Yeah. Thanks Aunt Freya," Hope says before hanging up, plan in mind. It's been two days since Taylor's apology, meaning it is now their birthday. It's also 7 in the morning. Hope wanted to make sure she had time to sort everything out. She dials Tyler's number.

"Hey," Tyler greets, and he doesn't sound like he's just waking up. Hope sincerely hopes that doesn't mean he was getting ready for school.

"Happy birthday!" She says, trying to sound excited while being quiet. Arya is still sleeping on the other side of the room. “Do you have plans?” Her whole plan is really hinging on a no. 

"Taylor told you," Tyler says with a sigh. “And no, other than going to school, I don’t have any plans. Don’t really feel like celebrating without Taylor with me. I mean, she hates the big parties and I love them, but I always drag her along, and it wouldn’t feel right without her.”

“Well, luckily for the both of you, I have my own plans. Besides, Taylor made me promise to make sure you had a good birthday. Now, get ready. You aren’t going to school today.”

“You are not good for my attendance record, Ms. Hope Mikaelson.”

“I highly doubt I’m good for anyone’s attendance record,” Hope says, quoting Tyler’s words the last time this conversation came up. Tyler laughs. “Anyway, are you ready or do you need some time? I’ll run over and get you whenever you’re ready.” 

“Just give me five minutes,” Tyler says. Hope agrees before hanging up. She gets ready, too, as she waits. After five minutes have passed, Hope speeds over to Tyler’s house. She knocks, and he opens the door immediately, already completely prepared. “Hey,” he says as he walks outside. “So, what’s the plan? Fair warning, I’m going to be miserable all day. It’s not just my birthday, Hope, and I can’t pretend it is while she suffers.”

“Well, you should be happy to hear that Lizzie started her on the animal blood, and she’s been doing a lot better. And like I said, I have a plan. I called my Aunt Freya and had her find a spell for me that temporarily makes a human’s heartbeat silent to all vampires. We can’t walk around town or anything, and she has to stay in the transitional cellar, but we are going to make it fun anyway. Just give me your hands.”

Tyler holds out his hands, and Hope interlaces their fingers. “Cordis ictum silencio,” she mutters. As she pulls her hands away, she stops hearing Tyler’s heartbeat, and she sighs in relief that the spell worked. There was no reason for it not to, but she couldn’t help worrying a little considering her whole plan hinged on this spell. 

“You know, I wouldn’t mind holding your hand a little longer,” Tyler says with a smile. “It did work, right?” 

“Yep,” Hope says, returning the smile. “Cool with super speeding to the school?” She asks, and Tyler nods enthusiastically. 

“Hell yeah. You know how much I love super powers,” Tyler says, holding out his arm so Hope can link hers around it. Hope does so and speeds off without another word. When they get to the school, Hope stops. 

“Okay, so, Taylor doesn’t know about this whole plan so it’s going to be a surprise. I do have to warn you, though. She’s doing better on the animal blood, but she may still look a little miserable. Starving isn’t fun for anyone.”

“Got it. Can we go now?” Tyler asks, super ready to see the sister he’s been missing so much. Hope smiles, taking his hand.

“Come with me,” she says as their fingers interlace once again. When they’re about to walk close enough that Taylor can see them, Tyler let’s go of Hope’s hand. 

“I don’t want her to know yet. She’s gonna be mad. I just feel like that on top of everything she’s dealing with right now might be too much,” he explains. 

“Vamp hearing is a thing,” Hope points out. “I really hope she’s sleeping.”

“Dang it, didn’t think of that,” Tyler says. “Well, let’s find out,” he adds and Hope leads him the rest of the way. 

“So what do you not want me to know yet?” Taylor asks as the walk the rest of the way. Tyler sighs as Hope looks over at him.

“Me and Hope are dating,” he says after a moment of deliberation on telling the truth.

“Oh,” Taylor says. “Don’t get me wrong, I hate the idea of you ever dating any friend of mine ever, but I was imagining something so much worse. Also, I can’t hear your heartbeat? Am I better now?” Taylor asks, looking over at Hope for the last question. 

“You are getting better, but, um, it’s a spell to make a human heartbeat quiet to vampires. You’ll always hear the heartbeats, save for when there’s one person and a spell like this being used, I guess. But you will be able to handle it, I know it. But for now, happy birthday!”

“I thought I told you to just make sure Tyler had a great birthday,” Taylor says.

“It would never be a great birthday without you,” Tyler says, and Taylor smiles at him before her face falls.

“I hurt you,” she says, looking away. “I’m really, really sorry.”

“Look at me, Taylor,” Tyler commands, walking closer to the cell. Taylor slowly looks up at him. “I’m okay. I forgive you. You’re my sister. No matter how annoying you can be, and god, you can be annoying, I love you. So stop hating on yourself. You’re just hurting us both by doing that.”

“So, what,” Taylor starts to ask, raising her eyebrows. “We’re just gonna sit here all day, me in a cell and talk about how miserable we are? I’d much rather you have an actual nice birthday with your friends, Tyler.”

“Well, I actually have more to my plan than sitting around miserably,” Hope points out before Tyler can respond. “Besides, what kind of friend or brother would leave you alone on your birthday? Jo, come in!”

Josie walks in with a cake, a knife, four plates, and a smile. “Happy birthday, Taylor! And Tyler! We’ve never really talked before, but now, we have a whole day with just the four of us. There’s ice cream, too, but I didn’t want it to melt.”

“Thank you guys,” Taylor says with a smile. “Seriously, I’m glad I don’t have to spend my birthday all alone. Even if I’m still in a cell.”

“That won’t be for too much longer,” Josie points out. “Lizzie says you’re doing a lot better. Adjusting to the animal blood perfectly.”

“Wait, what are you? I just realized that I had no idea you even knew about vampires and stuff. And how do you know that girl who has been watching me?”

“She’s my twin sister,” Josie says. “I’m a witch. Siphoner, specifically. It means I have to draw on other supernatural beings to use magic. It also means that my own birthdays aren’t exactly super fun for me.”

“Why not?” Tyler asks, eyebrows raised. 

“Me and my sister were born into a coven where twins are in line to be leaders. There’s this thing called the merge where the stronger twin basically absorbs the weaker one on their 22nd birthday and then takes leadership of the coven. And short of killing one of us before it can happen, we don’t really know of anything that can keep it from happening.”

“Why can’t you just become vampires?” Tyler asks.

“We could, but it’s an extreme we would really like to avoid reaching. I would have to be the one turn considering my sister is already struggles with her mental health and vampires have enhanced emotions, and I don’t really want to be a vampire, personally.”

“You still have like five years to figure out another solution,” Hope points out. “It’ll be okay. Besides, my aunt Freya has been around a long time, and your mom has been talking to her. I’m sure they can figure out something together.” 

“Yeah, hopefully you’re right. Either way, this is not a day for gloomy conversations of future doom. It’s a birthday party. Now, do you guys want to do cake now or later?” 

“Now, absolutely,” Taylor says without hesitation. “What kind of cake?”

“Funfetti,” Josie says. “Whipped cream icing. Wasn’t sure what kind to get, but mint chocolate chip ice cream if you guys don’t like that. Hope said it’s one of the only things you can agree is good.”

“Okay, super excited for the ice cream, but funfetti is literally the best type of cake. I don’t know you much, but I love you for that decision.”

“Thanks,” Josie laughs. She pulls out a knife to cut the cake with, setting it on the floor as she sits on the floor too. Hope and Tyler sit on the floor, too, all three of them close to Taylor’s cell. Hope would really like to let her out, but there’s a human and a witch in here, both full of blood that Taylor’s starving for, and Hope doesn’t want to take the risk before Taylor is really ready. 

Josie cuts the cake, sliding Tyler and Hope each a piece before carefully sliding a plate through the bars of the cell for Taylor and then cutting herself a piece. 

“I’m gonna have so much school work to do when I get back,” Taylor says with a sigh before taking a bite of cake. “It won’t even be excused because I can’t really tell them I turned into a vampire and had to stay in a cage. They may not even let me make it up, and I can’t be exempt now or anything now that I’ve missed so many days. Not looking forward to going back.”

“I actually kind of wanted to talk to you about that,” Josie says. “You may have realized this is a school for supernatural kids. Vampires, witches, werewolves, any other kind that we’re just now finding out exist. The teachers and classes here are specifically tailored for supernatural creatures. It’d probably be best.”

“Do I have to decide right now?” Taylor asks, cutting another small piece of cake off of the larger piece. She really only wants one thing to eat right now, and it’s exactly what she can’t have. It’s hard to keep her mind off of it with three people chock-full of blood sitting on the other side of the bars. She knows not to hurt them, and she doesn’t exactly plan on trying, but that doesn’t make the urge any easier to deal with.

“Of course not,” Josie says with a comforting smile. Once they finish their cake, Josie brings the ice cream. Josie and Hope aren’t really fans of the type of ice cream, but Taylor and Tyler couldn’t be more happy with the selection which makes it worth it. 

Josie heads out of the room as Taylor and Tyler are finishing their ice cream, and she comes back with a couple of games. "Kay, so most of the games I have are for Hope's cousin who is a little kid. Clue and uno are the only games I have that aren't for him. If you guys want, though, we could play one of the kid games. Hedbanz, Apples to Apples, Guess Who, and Candy Land."

"I mean, why not celebrate our birthday by acting like children?" Tyler asks with a smile. "I happen to love Hedbanz. Taylor used to be super bad at it, and it was hilarious. Kinda wanna see if she still is."

"Tyler! I was not super bad at it!" She argues with slight indignation and a fake pout. 

“Said the girl who never once won a game,” Tyler says jokingly.”

“I won against our cousin Jaden!”

“You were seven, he was three. Not exactly a fair game. Besides, if you’re so sure you won’t lose, why not play?” Tyler asks, clearly trying to get her to play. Taylor knows what he’s doing, but she can’t help buy into it, agreeing to play so that she can prove him wrong.

It ends up being Josie who wins the game, but Taylor does do better than any of them were expecting, honestly. Hope kind of sucks at it, though. She didn’t really play games like this as a kid, not really having any other kids around for a large majority of her childhood.

After they finish the game, they move on to Uno. It’s close about a hundred times, and Hope ends up being the one that wins the first time, Tyler the second. They end up playing most of the games by days end because, really, it’s easier than talking about everything. Besides, it’s nice to just have fun with each other, even if the majority of the games are intended for little kids. They're together, and they're having fun. That's what matters. They can worry about the rest tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a like or a comment if you enjoyed! I don't honestly remember much about the newest episode, but even though I don't much ship Hizzie, I feel bad for Lizzie. Also, it was very clear to me that Sebastian was tempting Alaric into killing him which is like so sad. Also I loved more Hosie scenes because I love that ship so much. Seeing Hope happy with her friend and her boyfriend was really cute, and I am happy that Jandon can just be friends. Although, I wouldn't mind it the three of them just dated each other, honestly. Love triangles always feel a bit dumb to me.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm literally so sorry. It's been so long. Also, and I feel really bad for saying this on a short chapter I'm posting after making you guys wait so long, but the next chapter will probably be the last one. It'll probably be pretty long, though. Likely longer than the other chapters lately. Not sure, but I think so, and I should have it written in not too long. Then again, that never really happens when I say it will, but I will really try. It's just my depression keeps spiking up and making it hard to be creative or do or care about anything. But it's fine. Hope you enjoy!

It's a few more days before Taylor gets to leave the transitional cellar. When she does, Hope and Tyler are standing on the other side of the cell as Lizzie unlocks it. As soon as it's open, Taylor rushes over and engulfs Hope in her arms. Hope can't help the gigantic smile that comes to her face as she finally feels like things could be okay again. 

When Taylor pulls away from Hope, she has a smile just as big. She walks over to Tyler next. “I’m so sorry I hurt you,” she says sincerely. Tyler doesn’t respond at first, just wraps his arms around his sister without hesitation.

Taylor can hear his heart beating much louder with them so close together, she tells herself that she can resist. She just has to get used to it. She takes deep breaths, and she manages to do what felt impossible not too long ago. Resist.

When Tyler pulls away, both of them are smiling. “I forgive you,” Tyler says, because he knows she needs to hear it. “I know you didn’t really mean to. Besides, you could never do anything that I wouldn’t forgive you for. I love you, idiot.”

“I love you too,” Taylor says, still smiling so wide, and it feels amazing to be so happy. It’s something she couldn’t have imagined not so long ago. 

“Lovely reunion, really, but have you decided if you’re changing schools?” Lizzie asks. “Because I’ve got stuff to do, and my mom wants to know.”

Taylor takes a deep breath. She figured out the answer not too long after the question was first asked, but she’s never really been good at certainty. She knows it’s the right thing, but she’s scared. Decisions are always hard. Change is harder, but some part of her knows what’s right.

“I never would’ve wanted to be supernatural,” Taylor says honestly. “But I am now, and I think… I think maybe I should learn more about it and go to a school with people I won’t have to lie to. I want to go to school here. But I won’t if you want me to stay in school with you, Ty. Besides, it’s a boarding school. I think it would be easier to live here, away from people that I could accidentally hurt, but… we’ve always been together.”

“I want you to do what’s best for you,” Tyler says, and Taylor feels relief wash over her. She really doesn’t want to have to pretend to be someone she’s not everyday, and she really is worried that she could still hurt one of them. She doesn’t want to risk it. 

So they get her settled in. Lizzie goes off to do other things, but Hope and Tyler help Taylor pack up the stuff that she needs to bring. Not all of it, just the essentials. She’s still going to be going back home a lot, and she really just needs some clothes and blankets and stuff. (They tell her dad that she got accepted to the Salvatore school, and he doesn’t suspect a thing.)

Hope also teaches Taylor how to super speed. (Tyler stands there jealous. He doesn’t want to be a vampire, but he certainly wouldn't mind the speed.) 

When it gets kind of late, Hope kisses Tyler goodbye after Taylor hugs him, and they bring the important stuff back to the school. Hope and Taylor stay up a few hours later than they really should, setting up Taylor’s half of the dorm room. Then, because Caroline and Alaric agreed to switch around the room arrangement so they could be together, they move Hope’s stuff in to. 

They don’t get everything unpacked because it’s late and they both have school in the morning, but that’s okay. After all, they have an eternity to hang out; Hope thinks they can probably carve out some of that time to unpack the rest tomorrow. 

As they fall asleep on their respective beds, they both feel much better than they have in weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry again! Hope you enjoyed! Please like or leave a comment!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed!


End file.
